Sewer project worker dies in trench collapse

Associated Press

BELLVILLE, Ohio

Officials say an Ohio man installing sewer lines along a highway was killed after dirt in a trench collapsed.

The collapse occurred Monday morning in Bellville, about 55 miles northeast of Columbus.

Joseph Shrock, owner of Shrock Premier Custom Construction Inc., tells the Mansfield News Journal that a boulder hit the worker’s steel safety box and trapped a worker inside, an estimated 16 to 18 feet below ground level.

Shrock said recovery crews dug carefully, fearing the man might have been outside the box, but he was covered inside the box.

Richland County coroner’s investigator Bob Ball identified the man as 32-year-old Marvin Troyer of Holmesville.

Ball said an autopsy was planned.