STERLING, MASS. (WHDH) - A worker died Thursday after part of a quarry wall collapsed onto his excavator, the Worcester County District Attorney’s office said.
The victim was identified as Brian Derby, 67, of Townsend.
The collapse happened near 8 a.m. Thursday at an Onyx Corporation quarry in the area of Chocksett Road and Stone Crest Way.
“We are devastated to share the news that one of our own […] was killed in a tragic accident yesterday,” a representative from the Onyx Corportation said in a statement. “Brian was a dedicated 11-year employee of the company and was respected and loved by many. We will continue to provide support to Brian’s friends and family. Professional counseling is being provided to everyone at the company while we mourn this tragic loss.”
Once police and fire officials responded, the DA’s office said, crews used camera equipment to assess the scene and “determined there were no signs of life.” The worker who had been operating the excavator was pronounced dead at 8:39 a.m., according to the DA’s office.
SKY7-HD was over the scene shortly before 11 a.m. and spotted the excavator partially buried under a pile of rocks inside the quarry. Three other excavators were parked nearby.
Elsewhere in the quarry, a group of workers gathered behind a line of yellow caution tape.
“It was a wall or a piece of the ledge or something that fell off the side of the hill and hit the machine the man was driving,” said Terry Heinold, who knows many of the workers at the quarry. “That’s all I know.”
“I feel terrible. It’s not a good thing,” Heinold said.
Though a regional technical rescue team responded to the quarry, the team had left the area by midday. In an emergency meeting roughly three hours after the collapse, Sterling Police Chief Sean Gaudette told the town’s select board that the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Mine Safety and Health Administration were responding.
State police detectives also responded to the scene, according to Gaudette
Gaudette said local officials had turned over control of the scene as of around 11 a.m.
Near 1:30 p.m., the DA’s office said crews were still working to determine whether they could move forward with efforts to retrieve the body of the worker who was killed.
Sterling Select Board Chair Kirsten Newman thanked first responders during the board’s emergency meeting and said she felt the board needed to discuss earth removal permitting at the quarry where the collapse took place.
“Our hearts are with those involved at this time,” she said.
“This is a tragic event that none of us really want to be reporting on,” said Select Board Vice Chair David Smith.
As Sterling’s governing body, though, Smith said he felt the board should issue a cease and desist order for earth removal work at the quarry.
Smith and Newman together passed the cease and desist order, prohibiting operations at the quarry by Onyx and the quarry’s landowners until the area is deemed safe.
Select Board member Maureen Cranson was not present at the emergency meeting.
“We hope for the best up there at that mine site and we will have more information at a later time,” Newman said.
Onyx in a post on Facebook said it closed all its locations through the weekend. Though Onyx said it plans to resume business on Monday, it was not immediately clear when the quarry may be deemed safe.
“Our hearts go out to the family of our longtime employee and friend who was killed in a tragic accident this morning at our Sterling Sand and Gravel pit. He was operating an excavator within the safety zone of a 100-foot ledge face when the wall collapsed; we are not releasing his name pending notification of next of kin,” Onyx said in a statement Thursday.
“Leading the investigation onsite is the Mining Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) who had been at the facility as recently as Tuesday for a company-requested inspection due to expanded operations,” the corporation continued.
Officials remained at the quarry past 4 p.m. Thursday, bringing in floodlights to keep the area illuminated ahead of sunset.
At Sterling Autobody, close to the quarry, manager Eric Hyche said he was keeping the family of the worker who died in his thoughts.
“These people work hard, they’re trucking around all day long,” Hyche said while the response continued. “…My heart goes out to his family.”
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