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Local man dies in trench
By Jeanne Starmack
CANFIELD
A township man is dead after a trench collapse at a construction site in Hudson, Ohio, on Wednesday.
James Wetzl, 56, died after a 15-foot-deep trench that had been dug to install a lateral sewer line to a new house collapsed on him and another man around 11 a.m., said Jody Roberts, communications manager for the city of Hudson. The city is southeast of Cleveland.
Wetzl’s body was removed around 6 p.m., Roberts said.
His family had been at the site throughout the afternoon, she said.
Several people had gathered at Wetzl’s High Meadow Drive home Wednesday evening. Family members there declined to comment.
The other victim, Albert Joseph Bagnoli Jr., 58, of Youngstown, was taken to Akron City Hospital after being removed from the trench around 4:30 p.m., Roberts said. The hospital said no condition was available for Bagnoli on Wednesday night.
Roberts said Bagnoli was still able to breathe after the clay-dirt wall collapsed inward.
“He was awake and smiling and in visibly good condition,” she said. He was taken by helicopter to the hospital.
The men worked for A. Bagnoli and Sons of Boardman. Roberts said Albert Bagnoli was not the owner of the company, and she did not know how they were related.
No one was at the company’s office on South Avenue Wednesday evening.
Four Bagnoli workers were digging a sewer line with a backhoe for four new homes that are to be built on a Duffield Drive cul-de-sac near the southern end of the city when the accident occurred. Only Wetzl and Bagnoli were caught in the collapse.
Roberts said the company was working for a private developer.
Workers used shovels and even buckets to help clear the trench.
But before they could begin their work, rescuers had to shore up both sides of the trench. Shoring up continued through the afternoon as digging progressed.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.