Worker trapped by coal on train car in Bridgewater, Massachusetts saved after careful 4 hour rescue
BRIDGEWATER - It took more than four hours, but rescuers freed a worker trapped waist-deep in coal on a freight train car in Bridgewater on Tuesday.
The man was reported trapped around 9 a.m. in the stationary train car. The 26-year-old employee at Stiles and Hart Brick Company was pulled out high above the car around 1:30 p.m. and was flown to a Boston hospital.
He appeared to be OK and was joking with rescuers, authorities said.
"He had a smile on his face, so I think he was happy to be out," Chief Rob O'Brien with the Plymouth County technical rescue team said.
O'Brien said a vacuum truck was used to carefully remove coal from around the man. He said the worker was alert and talking to paramedics during the rescue mission.
It took so long because of the "tremendous amount of weight" trapping him, O'Brien said.
"This is a very time-consuming and slow operation because we're trying to keep the person safe the whole time that we do it," he said. "If you think of coal it's like water, as soon as you start moving some of it, it's going to start moving around."
"We're terribly sorry it happened. We take care of our employees," said fourth-generation owner Lincoln David Andrews, adding the accident was an anomaly."I could not care any more about their jobs and their safety than I do."
The train was not on a rail line. No other information is available at this point in the investigation.