ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, April 3, 1996 TAG: 9604030018
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV6 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: PULASKI
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
State officials are investigating the death of a worker crushed beneath a mobile home in an industrial accident last week in Pulaski County.
Brad Nester, captain of the Pulaski County Lifesaving Crew, said Ronald Woods, a 55-year-old Floyd County resident, was under the mobile home when the crew arrived about three minutes after receiving the emergency call at 2:45 p.m. March 27.
The accident happened at Clayton Homes, where Woods worked.
Rescuers extricated him within 10 minutes, using a hydraulic jack that is part of a mobile home toter. They started cardiopulmonary resuscitation, but Woods was pronounced dead at Radford Community Hospital, Nester said.
Nester said crew members gave it their all. "The tried every effort they had," he said.
A spokesman for the state division of Occupational Safety and Health, under the Department of Labor and Industry, said it will be a few months before more information is released about the incident.
"Our policy on these things is we don't talk about it until the investigation is complete," said Dick Crawford.
Investigators should finish their work this week. Their job includes seeing if they can determine a cause for the accident and how to prevent it from happening again. The investigators will determine if there were any OSHA violations, and if so, issue a citation within six months.
Crawford said it likely will be another month before the case would reach his desk. At that point, it goes to a legal review process and it could take as long as three months before any findings are released.
Crawford said two other OSHA investigations into recent workplace deaths in the New River Valley are continuing:
* The Dec. 21 death of Alfred Cumbee, who was killed while working for Bartlett Tree Experts on the Lynchburg Foundry Co. property in Radford.
Cumbee, 62, died after a tractor pulling an industrial mower ran over a rope he had tied to his waist to rappel down an embankment.
That case is in the legal review process and will probably return to Crawford's desk in two or three weeks. If a citation is to be issued, it must be done by June 20.
* The Feb. 7 death of Timothy Edward Huff, a laborer who died after falling about 30 feet from the roof of an expansion project at New Energy Bedrooms on Prospect Drive in Christiansburg.
Huff, 32, worked for Avis Construction Co. of Roanoke. Witnesses said Huff, who was moving roofing material, misjudged the distance between steel roof beams and stepped backward. He slipped, fell through the roof and struck his head. He died immediately.
LENGTH: Medium: 55 lines KEYWORDS: FATALITYby CNB