Posted at: 06/29/2010 6:57 PM
By: Ellery McCardle

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OSHA On Site of Deadly Accident

(ABC 6 NEWS) -- State agencies began their investigation at the construction site where a Rochester construction worker was killed Monday afternoon.  OSHA investigators arrived on scene early Tuesday morning.

The Rochester Police Department is also investigating the details of how 35 year-old Philip Soukup was killed.

Crews are back on site where less than 24 hours ago, one of their fellow workers, Philip Soukup, was killed.

"As he was operating the soil compactor it started to go down an embankment and he had fallen off of it and the soil compactor landed on top of him, killing him instantly," says Lieutenant Casey Moilanen.

Rochester Police are working with state agencies like OSHA, which started its investigation today.

OSHA is looking at equipment on-site, talking with workers and looking at whether the ABBCO Construction Company ever used rollover protection safety training.

"minnesota OSHA doesn't have prior investigations regarding this company no previous complaints or inspections," says James Honerman of MN OSHA

According to Minnesota OSHA, the most common type of work-related accident they investigate involves workers who were crushed by equipment. Exactly what happed to Soukup.

"Minnesota OSHA investigates 21 work-related fatalities each year and unfortunately 7 of those fatalities investigated each year are due to an employee being crushed," says Honerman.

As for the police investigation, officials say it could take up to a month.

"At this point we don't have any reason to believe it was anything but an accident but we will investigate to make sure.

Minnesota OSHA officials say this is the ninth work-related death this year.

And they say there's no timetable of when the investigation will wrap up, but when it does, they will work with ABBCO Construction to make sure this doesn't happen again.