Fochville worker dies as trench collapses, leaving him under nine tons of sand for five hours
The man was extracted at 8.10pm but showed no signs of life and was declared dead on the scene.
ER24 said the man sustained critical burn injuries, while the two women had suffered serious burn wounds. Picture: ER24
A man in his 30s has died while he was laying pipe in the bottom of a trench that collapsed on top of him alongside Danie Theron Street in Fochville in Gauteng on Tuesday afternoon.
ER24 paramedics arrived on scene at 3.41pm along with the South African Police Service (SAPS) and the Fochville Fire Department.
A digger was used in an attempt to dig the man out, but ultimately a sniffer dog from the SAPS K9 unit in Benoni was needed to detect the body of the man, which had been trapped under about nine tons of sand for up to five hours.
Extracted at 8.10pm, the man unfortunately showed no signs of life and was declared dead on the scene.
The exact circumstances surrounding this incident are unknown to ER24, but, as stated, the SAPS was on the scene for further investigation.
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