And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: Robert White Eye of the White Eye drum from Walpole died in a construction accident in Southfield, Michigan..We mourn this death of our relative.. Ishgooda ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ info sent by Catherine Davids Ish---I found this article on the Detroit Free Press web site Catherine ************************* >From the Detroit Free Press May 25, 1999 Worker Dies in Trench Cave-In A 50-year old sewer line worker from Canada was buried alive and died in Southfield on Monday after the walls of a trench in which he was working collapsed. For more than 6 1/2 hours, 50 rescue workers from at least two fire departments labored to free Robert Whiteye of Thamesville, Ontario. desperate that he might still be alive. The rescue squad included Pontiac firefighters who specialize in collapses and entrapments. When the cave-in happened, coworkers included two of Whiteye's relatives who leaped into the trench digging frantically. They briefly hadd Whiteye in their grasp, but he slipped away and disappeared under the dirt, said Southfield Fire Chief Robert Ozias. Ozias said firefighters had to finally order Whiteye's relatives out of the trench. By 8 p.n. rescuers began to expect the worst and were working cautiously under a steady drizzle, beaming floodlights and dropping temperatures. Whiteye's body was recovered at 10:30 p.m. Whiteye, a Delaware, was dead not long after the intial collapse, Ozias said. The original cave-in occured at about 4:00 p.m. at 9 Mile Road and Lake Ravines Drive in Southfield. Rain made rescue efforts difficult as dirt began to muddy. "We'd get both shores up and it would cave in around us again," said Captain Tim Campbell of Pontianc's rescue unit. "The damn thing was falling all around them and we had to get them out of there, otherwise we'd be digging two more bodies out of there," Ozias said of Whiteye's coworkers. Campbell said the soil conditions were perfect for an accident. "The conditions were the highest risk of cave-in other than free-falling sand," he said. The firefighters "were digging like crazy," said Ted Crawford, 54, who lives near the accident. Witnesses said that Whiteye was laying foot-wide water and sewer pipes into a 16-foot deep trench for a newly constructed house when the clay-riddled soil fell in on him. Whiteye was in the trench alone, helping remove water from it when the walls caved in, according to Southfield Deputy City Administrator Ron DeMaagd. DeMaagd said three city inspectors and engineers from a city-hired consulting company were at the job site. He said inspectors told him workers were trying to stabilize the trench before beginning work on the pipes. "This is your second biggest fear with underground excavation," DeMaagd said. "This is one of the cleaner projects. It's just one those freak accidents." Southfield Mayor Dennis Fracassi said he was "just absolutely sick" about the accident. "The weather was bad and I was kind of worried about the soil, and all the time I was driving over there I was saying, 'Gosh, I hope they get him out of there,'" Fracassi said. Whiteye was working with a crew from Lanzo Construction Co. a Roseville-based company that specializes in sewer and water supply lines. "Lanzo Construction Co. and its employees are totally devestated by this accident," vice president Angelo D'Alessandro said through a company spokesman. Whiteye's ex-wife and other relatives and friends at the scene declined to comment. Salvation Army representatives were helping the family, as were two chaplains from the Southfield Police Department. Whiteye's second cousin Rhonda Whiteye, a neighbor of his on an Ontario Indian Reservation where scores of their relatives live, said she learned of his death from another relative. "I was watching that thing all day today on TV, thinking how horrible it was for whoever was in there," she said. "And then one of my cousins called, asked me if I knew Robert. I said, yeah. He said, 'Welll, he's dead.'" She said Whiteye was diivorced and had two sons and three daughters. a son and daughter lived with him. She said Whiteye had been living about 20 years in a house beside his father's home on the moraviantown Reserve, where about 320 Indians reside about 10 miles outside Thamesville - a 90 minute drive from Windsor. Reprinted under the fair use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html doctrine of international copyright law. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) Unenh onhwa' Awayaton http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
