Pipeline Worker Crushed

A 42-year-old construction worker was crushed to death Wednesday morning when a 5-ton drill being used to lay the controversial Pacific Pipeline shifted off its rails and struck his chest.

The man was identified by his employer as Mitch Williams of Madera. He was working on a segment of pipeline in Glendale, at the corner of Broadway and San Fernando Road along an industrial strip that borders Los Angeles along the Golden State Freeway, when the accident occurred at 10:08 a.m., investigators said.

California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health, the Los Angeles district attorney’s office and Glendale’s fire and police departments dispatched investigators, who said it will be days, at least, before any conclusions can be drawn about the cause of the fatal accident.

Pacific Pipeline Systems is managing construction of the 132-mile crude-oil conduit, which will connect oil fields in Kern County to refineries in the Los Angeles Harbor area. ARB Construction of Lake Forest is the project’s prime contractor. Both companies have contractor’s licenses listed in good standing with the state.

No one else was hurt when the drill machine--about the size and height of a twin bed--shifted off its rails, investigators said.

Williams was a five-year employee of the Walter C. Smith Co. of Clovis, which was subcontracted by ARB Construction to install 20-inch pipes beneath roadways and railroad tracks. “He was a very competent person, the most competent,” said Mike Debenedetto, a vice president of the Smith company. “Mitch was the foreman in charge of that machine.”

He had a wife and children, Debenedetto said.

Although police said Williams died immediately, “his co-workers attempted to provide CPR, but it was a futile effort,” said Battalion Chief David Starr of the Glendale Fire Department.

According to Cal/OSHA records, the Smith company has been cited seven times since 1993, mostly for minor paperwork violations, but not for any serious infraction.

The Glendale section of the pipeline, running from Hubbard Street at the San Fernando/Sylmar border to the Glendale Freeway, has been under construction since November, said Darryl Oscars, ARB field safety manager.

“It’s been a very safe project up till now,” he said. “We’ve had nothing like this before. We’re still very stunned by it.”

The pipeline generally follows the Golden State Freeway from Kern County to the San Fernando Valley, then runs along the Union Pacific Railroad right-of-way until it reaches refineries in El Segundo, Wilmington and Long Beach. When completed, the $170-million pipeline will carry 130,000 barrels of heated crude oil daily.

Williams’ death was the first associated with the year-old pipeline project, the subject of a seven-year battle. Critics, including Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcon, have accused planners of routing the pipeline through predominantly poor and minority neighborhoods.

The L.A. City Council initially opposed the construction project, with opponents arguing that the pipeline would negatively affect minority communities, not only by exposing them to potentially toxic substances, but also disrupting their lives during construction.

The council also questioned the idea of building a pipeline near water supplies--30 feet below aqueducts and reservoirs in Sylmar--that contain 75% of Los Angeles’ water supply.

But state environmental reports say that high-technology systems will monitor pipeline operation and make oil transportation more efficient and environmentally safe by eliminating the need for some 25,000 round trips per year in trucks, tankers and trains.

After winning several courtroom battles throughout the state, the Pacific Pipeline builders forced the council to relent and approve a settlement to end all legal challenges to the project more than a year ago.

The settlement, in part, required the pipeline builders to provide the city with fiber optic cables along the route and 150 computers for L.A. schools, libraries and community centers.

The county already has some 2,000 miles of petroleum pipelines, some larger than the 20-inch diameter Pacific Pipeline, which is the first pipeline construction in the L.A. Basin in 35 years.

Wednesday’s fatal accident and subsequent investigation slowed traffic throughout the day at the busy intersection, with traffic stretching more than a mile in each direction down San Fernando Road and Metrolink trains passing a few feet from the scene.

While investigators attempted to reconstruct the events leading up to Williams’ death, his body lay at the bottom of the hole, covered only by a white tarp, his hard hat on the dirt next to his body.

Johnson is a Times staff writer and Steinman a correspondent.