Two Workers Electrocuted in Accident Among Several Killed on Job

Safety at Work

North Charleston, SC (WorkersCompensation.com) – Two workers are dead after being electrocuted on the job in South Carolina.

They were two of several employees killed on the job across the country recently.

Charleston County Coroner Bobbie Jo O’Neal identified the two men as Rolando Louis Mucu, 34, and Jose Tec Chub, 26, died at approximately 6;38 p.m. on Jan. 6 when they became entangled in power lines. O’Neal said the two men were contract workers hired to install gutters on a building, and were in a hydraulic boom lift, when the basket came into contact with active power lines.

Officials said that when first responders arrived on scene, they found the two men “actively on fire” and tangled in the lines. Firefighters were unable to put the fire out until Dominion Power arrived on the scene to cut the power, police said.

In Upstate NY, a Valvoline employee died after being crushed between two cars.

Officials in Halfmoon, N.Y. said the employee died after he was crushed between cars at a shop around 11:52 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 10. Two vehicles were waiting in line behind the back door of the shop when the second vehicle in line accelerated rapidly.

The vehicle hit Valvoline employee Sikander Samuel, 50, and pushed him into the back of the first vehicle in line pinning the man between the two cars, police said. The crash pushed the vehicle in the front through the shop’s rear glass garage and into a car that was being serviced inside the garage, law enforcement officers. The car inside the garage was then forced through the shop’s glass front door.

Samuel was rushed by Clifton Park-Halfmoon EMS to Albany Medical Center with serious injuries, until he passed away on Monday.

The driver of the vehicle that pinned him, Erik J. Lundgren, was identified as the driver of the vehicle. Officials said he was cooperating with investigators, but that no charges had been announced.

In Eureka Township, Mich., an employee of a towing company was killed when he was trapped under a tow truck.

Michigan State Police Lt. Pat Agema said medical personnel were called to the scene of Greenville Steel, a steel supplier and recycling supplier, after Daniel Evans, 26, was reported to be trapped under the flatbed portion of a tow truck as it was being lowered.

Officials said employee of J & A Towing of Belding were dropping off a hi-lo forklift when Evans became trapped after the flatbed of the two truck was lowered into place.

“The driver was rolling the flatbed back up into place, after they had just rolled a forklift off,” Agema told media outlets. “The other employee was on the passenger side, and the driver couldn’t see him. That employee got caught, trapped in-between the flatbed and the frame of the truck. Life-saving measures were performed at the scene, but nothing could be done. He was declared deceased at the scene.

Agema said the death is being investigated as an accident, and that OSHA is investigating.

In East Windsor, Conn., a man was killed Jan. 6 after becoming pinned beneath a car carrier at a construction company.

Police Chief Matthew Carl confirmed that the fatal incident occurred on the Kement Construction property. Carl said 69-year-old William Hastings was trapped under the right side of the vehicle’s cab. Specifically, officials said, Hastings was found between the vehicle’s dual wheels.

Firefighters said crews were called to extricate him from the vehicle. Once he was dislodged, he was pronounced dead on the scene. Initially, an investigation suggested that the man was performing maintenance on the truck cab when the vehicle rolled backward and trapped him under it.

Officials said OSHA has been informed of the accident as a workplace fatality.

And in Anderson, Indiana, a man died after being pinned beneath a service van at the Formica Corporation.

Officials said police were called to the Formica Corporation on Jan. 7. When they arrived, they found a 70-year-old employee, Duayne Hodson, pinned beneath a large industrial service van. Police said the man was attempting to change a flat tire and had the van on a jack when it fell, trapping him under the van. One of the wheels had already been removed when the van slipped off the jack.

Deputies said a nearby Formica employee attempted to use a forklift to raise the vehicle, as the forklift lifted the back of the van, the deputy pulled the man from underneath. Medics from the Buck Creek Fire Department arrived within moments and transported the man to an Indianapolis hospital where he was pronounced dead.

The incident is being investigated by OSHA. 

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