WORKER HURT WHEN TRENCH WALL FALLS

JACKSON - A wall on a sewer-line trench in a new subdivision collapsed Tuesday on a Jackson excavating company worker, injuring him, police said.

Jackson Police Capt. Robert Hull identified the worker as Jerry Wolfenkoehler, 41. Wolfenkoehler, he said, was taken to St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau, where a hospital spokesperson Tuesday morning described him as being in satisfactory condition.

The accident occurred in a subdivision off Route D just east of Broadridge Road, said Hull. The accident was reported to police at 9:13 a.m. The accident occurred, he said, in a trench approximately 12 feet deep.

"The operator of the backhoe turned his head. Next thing, he looked and the side wall collapsed and he (Wolfenkoehler) was buried to his waist," said Hull.

Wolfenkoehler works for Mark Skinner Inc., of Jackson, said a woman who answered the telephone at the company Tuesday. The woman declined to give any further information. Hull said Skinner had been the backhoe driver.

Hull said he had heard radio transmissions by ambulance personnel, and that Wolfenkoehler had reportedly experienced pain in his right hip. He said he did not know whether Wolfenkoehler, who remained conscious the entire time and talked to ambulance personnel and fellow workers, had suffered any broken bones.

"They must have been trying to dig him out of there for a while before they called us," he said. "He's lucky. The ground on the side of him was cracking some more. It could have given way and it could have been a bad situation."

Hull said he didn't know how the collapse occurred. "It's something in the ground structure there, evidently, (that) gave way and caused the wall structure to collapse."

A Jackson city crew was working at the site when the accident happened, he said.