Man Dies Trying to Save His Son in Ditch Collapse

An Orange County family was devastated Monday after Jose Galdamez, a construction foreman, jumped into a collapsing ditch Sunday to try to save his only son, and instead was crushed to death.

Galdamez’s widow was still trying to figure out how to break the news to their son, Michael Anthony Galdamez, 21, whom the father died trying to save at a golf course construction site 20 miles east of Seattle.

“They were one,” said Yolanda Galdamez, 54, who wept during a telephone interview from the intensive care unit of a Seattle hospital. “They were extremely close. Before I even heard any details, I knew my husband had died trying to save our son.”

The men, who traveled across the country doing construction work for Oliphant Golf Construction of Madison, Wis., “were always together,” said 16-year-old Joanna Alvarez, Jose Galdamez’s niece. “For Michael, his father was No. 1.”

Jose Galdamez, 53, jumped into the 14-foot-deep ditch after mud and heavy clay buried his son up to his thighs.

Michael Galdamez “starts calling for help,” said King County Sheriff’s Deputy Gregg Walker. “Two guys jump in to help, and one was his father. More dirt starts falling from one side . . . and crushes the father against one side. He was buried at chest level.”

The Fire Department received a frantic call from another worker who had jumped into the ditch with the elder Galdamez and used a cellular telephone to call 911. When firefighters arrived, four men were shoveling through the heavy clay.

Fearful of another collapse if they used rescue equipment, 34 firefighters clawed through the mud and clay for more than three hours to extricate Michael Galdamez from the ditch.

On Monday, the family gathered rallied at a Seattle hospital to support the younger Galdamez, whose legs were crushed and whose lungs were damaged.