Rockslide crushes excavator, kills worker at quarry

WBZ

By Riley Rourke, Kristina Rex

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    STERLING, Massachusetts (WBZ) — A worker in an excavator was killed in a rockslide at a quarry in Sterling, Massachusetts Thursday.

The worker was in the machine at the Onyx Corporation’s sand and gravel pit on Stone Crest Way when a large section of a rock ledge collapsed onto it just before 8 a.m.

“It’s astonishing to see that much wreckage on top of an excavator; you never see something like that on a day-to-day basis. Then you come to realize it’s a 90-foot wall that came down. It’s scarier,” said Eric Hyche, who works nearby.

“No signs of life”

“Crews used camera equipment to assess the scene of the collapse and determined there were no signs of life. The worker was pronounced deceased at 8:39 a.m.and crews continue to work to recover the deceased,” Lindsay Corcoran, a spokesperson for the Worcester County District Attorney, said in a statement Thursday afternoon.

The company released a statement Thursday night, saying: “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.”

The Mine Safety and Health Administration(MSHA) is now at the site trying to figure out how to secure the area and get the worker out. The worker has not been identified yet.

Onyx also said that MSHA had been at the facility “as recently as Tuesday for a company-requested inspection due to expanded operations.”

Nearby workers say they knew something was wrong when they saw the first responders.

“There’s never really any emergency vehicles that ever go out back there that I can remember. There’s never one ambulance, let alone a county’s worth of emergency crews,” Hyche says.

Sterling quarry closed

“Onyx has closed ALL LOCATIONS from today through the weekend. We will resume business on Monday, 8/26,” the company posted on its Facebook page late Thursday morning.

Sterling is about 20 minutes north of Worcester. The Onyx Corporation is based in Acton, Massachusetts.

The land is owned by The Grands, LLC and Love for Grands, LLC, but the quarry is operated by Onyx. It opened in 2018. The removal of the retaining wall began in July, according to permit obtained by WBZ-TV.

The Sterling Select Board voted to file a cease and desist order for the company and the landowners until an investigation is completed and they determine the area is “safe and suitable for operation.”

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