Local News in Brief : Collapse of Ditch Kills Worker in Moorpark
A60-year-old man installing a sewer line in Moorpark died Friday when an earthen wall of a ditch he was working in collapsed on him, the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department reported.
The man, Robert Leroy Shepherd of Santa Barbara, was pronounced dead at Los Robles Regional Medical Center in Thousand Oaks after the 11:15 a.m. accident on West Los Angeles Avenue, Lt. Hank Carrillo said.
Shepherd, employed by the Ventura-based Somis Plumbing Co., was in a four-foot-deep ditch when one of the walls gave way, burying him, Carrillo said.
Shepherd’s co-workers immediately called paramedics and pulled him from the dirt. But paramedics were unable to revive him, Carrillo said.
It was not known what caused the cave-in. The California Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating the accident, Carrillo said.
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