Drama on construction site

Drama on construction site: five workers buried

The fatal accident occurred in Gampern.

(Bild: Loy Robert)

Serious work accident on Tuesday afternoon in Gampern in Upper Austria. Several workers were buried on a construction site. Two people were so seriously injured that they died at the scene of the accident. Three other people were injured.

It is not yet entirely clear how the accident in Gampern came about. The fire departments and the Red Cross were alerted at around 3 p.m. because several people were trapped.

Five people injured
It was initially unclear how many people were still trapped under the soil in an excavation pit. When the fire department arrived, a man was desperately trying to free a colleague from the wet and heavy soil. In the end, the worker (49) was rescued with serious injuries and taken to Gmunden Hospital. 

Firefighter also buried
"Two people were still in the pit, but we didn't know whether they were still alive," says fire department commander Franz Schausberger, describing the dramatic minutes of the "Krone". Then there was another dramatic situation: soil came loose again and a firefighter was buried. However, he was quickly rescued and suffered minor injuries. A second firefighter was also slightly injured.

Digging with bare hands
However, all help came too late for the two workers (40 and 60 years old). One of the victims is said to be the boss of the company carrying out the work. Although they were rescued from the pit, they died at the scene of the accident. The operation was very stressful for the rescuers, some of whom had to dig the victims out with their bare hands. "They meticulously tried to remove the earth by hand and with small shearing tools. We had to keep taking turns because the emergency services were stretched to the limit," says District Fire Brigade Commander Wolfgang Hufnagl, describing the situation.

The crisis intervention team was also on site, and the fire departments held a debriefing afterwards to process what they had experienced. 

Fatal accident in a lift shaft
Exactly two weeks ago, there was a fatal accident on a construction site in Upper Austria. Workers had fallen into a lift shaft in Traun. One man (51) fell onto another worker (29) who had been working at depth. Both men were killed. A third worker (25) survived the fall.