Rock rolls into SE Bend sewer trench; worker hit

A construction worker on a southeast Bend sewer project escaped with minor injuries Thursday morning when a large rock tumbled into the 18-foot-deep trench where he was working and struck him, a company official said.

Bend police and fire medics were dispatched around 8:30 a.m. to the work site along 15 th Street near Ferguson Road, where Taylor NW is working on the city’s “Southeast Interceptor” sewer project.

Taylor NW Vice President Rod Gage said the 28-year-old worker was alone in a shored-up ditch when the rock, about three feet in diameter, rolled down and struck him in the legs, knocking him down.

He was in what’s called a “trench shield” that is designed to protect workers from cave-ins or similar problems.

The construction worker was removed from the ditch, evaluated and taken to St. Charles Bend “as a precautionary measure,” Gage said. He said the worker had “scrapes, bruises – he’s sore.”

“He was lucky,” the official said. “It’s one of those freak accidents. You try to do everything that’s right, we had shoring in there. It just happened to roll down the front face and into the box.”