Crews Dig For Body In Grosse Pointe Woods Trench Collapse
GROSSE POINTE WOODS (WWJ) - Crews in Grosse Pointe Woods were still working to recover the body of a construction company owner one full day after he was buried in a trench collapse while installing a sewer line.
They've been digging up Fairway Street to make sure it's safe to get 59-year-old Leland Rumph's body out; and officials said it could take all day and possibly even part of the night.
Dick Allor, a resident in the area, said it's odd that they were building on that lot in the first place because it's always wet.
"The big problem there, and I think he should've known...If there was to be any cave-in, I would expect it to be there — or any, like, quicksand, you know?" Allor told WWJ's Mike Campbell. "A lot of people say quicksand, there is quicksand here. And this a big dump; all this was fill."
Grosse Pointe Woods Public Safety Director Al Fincham said Rumph, who owned Rumph Construction in Sterling Heights, wasn't following Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration (MIOSHA) rules, failing to use safety equipment as required at such sites.
"You have to have a hole that's wide enough to accommodate the proper slope and grade of the soil you're working in," said Fincham, "and you have to have the proper shoring, or plywood if you will, on the sides; or metal, for whatever type of configuration of equipment that you have — a trench box as an example — and there was none of that here."
Joe Ahee, Director of the Grosse Pointe Woods Department of Public Services, told reporters he's surprised anyone was allowed to build on the site.
"There were some issues in the beginning about being able to tap that specific sewer," said Ahee. "We presented the builder with some other options, and he didn't feel that that was the way for him to go."
Fincham said the exact cause of the tragic collapse is not yet known. An investigation will be needed to determine whether the digging work was being done properly.