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Chad Elgert, 35, a North Sioux City Speedy Rooter sewer company employee, remains in critical condition at a local hospital after he tried to rescue another worker in the same sewer. Elgert had been called to fix a clogged sewer in a one-block stretch of Souix City, IA recently when his co-worker, Robert Thompson, 54, fell into unconscious from the gasses in the sewer. Elgert then descended into the manhole to try to rescue Thompson, but he was also overtaken…

According to published reports, the United Steelworkers Union of British Columbia has filed suit against forest company Weyerhaeuser, charging the company was criminally negligent in a tragic 2004 accident in which a sawmill worker died doing a job that management knew was unsafe. The worker, Lyle Hewer, 55, died on Nov. 17, 2004, when he entered the bottom of a hopper — called a hog — filled with wood debris. The debris came loose and buried him alive. Less than…

An Oregon accident left an employee dead and the company for which he worked searching for answers and a way to prevent future accidents. Two employees for an unnamed Oregon company were excavating a buried irrigation pipeline for an agricultural operation. One employee was operating a backhoe to unearth concrete vaults in a trench 35 feet long, 14 feet wide, and 14 feet deep. The second employee entered the trench to remove soil remaining around the pipeline and vault. While…