Man dies at Rostraver trench accident site

A 60-year-old man died Monday in a construction accident in Rostraver Township, police said.

The Westmoreland County coroner's office identified him as Vaughn Kopetsky of Derry Township.

Kopetsky was working in a drainage ditch in the 200 block of Country Drive for R. A. Monzo Construction of Unity Township, said Rostraver Sgt. Joseph Dugan.

A metal safety box was inside the eight-foot ditch but a collapse happened in an unsupported area as Kopetsky was using a ladder to climb out, Dugan said. The accident was reported at 3:27 p.m.

Kopetsky was pulled from the ditch and CPR was initiated, but he could not be resuscitated, Dugan said.

A backhoe was parked near the ditch, and drainage pipe and gravel was piled near it.

Westmoreland County Deputy Coroner Tim O'Donnell and a representative from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration were on the scene.

Officials from Monzo Construction spoke with police but declined to comment to reporters at the scene.

“Once I saw the fire trucks, I thought a gas line had ruptured, until someone came down and said someone had lost their life,” said Janet Britt, who lives at the corner of Country and Vernon drives.

On Feb. 22, an 18-year-old working with his father in nearby South Huntingdon was killed when a 10-foot-deep trench collapsed and he was buried by tons of soil.

Adam Skokut Jr. died of suffocation after the trench walls collapsed as he and his father worked to install a septic system at a home in their neighborhood outside Smithton, authorities said.

OSHA officials are still investigating that accident.