Man freed after being stuck in rock crusher

Tim Pratt

Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2004 | 11:27 a.m.

Clark County firefighters, a heavy rescue team and a helicopter were sent to a quarry on Sloan Road, west of Interstate 15 near milemarker 25 about 8:30 a.m. this morning to help a man who was stuck in a massive rock sifter.

Ted Volk, who is about 45, was repairing something on the inside of the massive sifter, called a rock grizzly by workers, when a one-and-a-half-inch steel plate shifted, Jody Lombard, engineer for Clark County Fire Department's heavy rescue team, said.

The plate pinned Volk into the wall of the 20-feet tall by 20-feet wide machine, which sifts big rocks from small rocks.

Ten employees at the quarry used a torch to cut the steel plate off the machinery to free the man, firefighters were told.

Volk was conscious during the rescue, Lombard said, but his condition deteriorated quickly.

By 9:20 a.m. Volk was being flown to University Medical Center's trauma center. His condition was not available.

Garth Frehner, owner of Frehner Construction, which jointly operates the 535-acre quarry with Southern Nevada Paving, said, "Volk is a longtime worker, an excellent repairman and we are all praying for him."

"It was a terrifying moment for all of us," Frehner said. "And I was amazed that he wasn't visibly bruised or cut, or had anything broken."

The 50 or so workers at the quarry, who produce large rocks for walls used in erosion control and small rocks for concrete, undergo extensive safety training, Frehner said.

Lombard said that safety training is what saved Volk.

"It was the workers that saved him really. These guys on the hill know what they are doing, and they help each other out," Lombard said, pointing to a mountain of grayish white rock on the opposite side of the hill from where the accident occurred. Cement mixers and trucks drove around the edge of the 1,300-foot rock mountain.

Lombard, who has been with the Clark County Fire Department for 19 years, said he has not been to any accident in a rock quarry in a recent memory. His unit does get a lot of construction site calls, though, Lombard said.

Frehner said his company had the best safety record in the state, and that the only other serious accident had been 10 years ago, when a worker hurt his foot. That man still works at the site, Frehner said.