CROSBY, Minn. - Rescuers saved a 21-year-old Crosby man trapped up to his armpits in a trench at a construction site late Thursday night in Crosby after receiving a 911 call that he was buried in a box.
The emergency call came in about 11:09 p.m. but the man was unsure of his location. Crosby Police Chief Kim Coughlin said law enforcement pinged the cellphone and after a search an officer heard the man, Joseph Erickson, in a construction site in a residential neighborhood.
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Coughlin said the man fell 15 feet into a construction trench, which was surrounded by temporary orange flexible fencing and marked on all sides by a reflective sign.
Erickson, who cut his chin in the fall in the trench, had his legs stuck under the metal trench box as dirt and the rain-saturated embankment started to collapse around him. Erickson was buried up to his armpits in the loose dirt.
Coughlin said it could have been a life or death moment if the soil collapse had been more extensive. She noted alcohol was a factor and part of the embankment probably was giving way in response to the activity of the rescue operation given all the recent rains.
Neighbors with shovels helped Crosby police officers and firefighters. Rescuers got a strap around Erickson and lifted him out of the trench. He was placed on a backboard and taken to nearby Cuyuna Regional Medical Center. Coughlin said Erickson was not seriously injured.
