Paving worker killed in accident

Eric Leake

Wednesday, May 11, 2005 | 9:55 a.m.

A 25-year-old paving worker was killed Tuesday afternoon when he was run over by a truck at a road construction site.

The man, an employee of Southern Nevada Paving, was working on a stretch of road alongside Centennial Centre Boulevard northwest of Ann Road and US 95.

"The worker was measuring the road to see how much asphalt was needed to finish that stretch," Metro Police Sgt. Tracy McDonald said.

"The truck started backing up and they didn't see each other."

The man was run over by a Peterbilt diesel truck around 1:30 p.m. His name has not been released.

Because the death occurred at a construction site, it is being considered an industrial accident and being investigated by the Nevada Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

State OSHA offices were closed late Tuesday. Southern Nevada Paving did not offer any comment.

Cody Bratton and Shawn Cady work for American Asphalt & Grading on a project neighboring the accident site. They said they heard about the accident at work that afternoon.

"It's an odd thing. This is the one time such as accident has happened since we've been here," Cady said.

Cady said he has worked in the paving business for 18 years. He had a deep tan and a peppered beard.

"I've never seen a death," he said. "Everybody needs to watch out for everybody. It's rough work."

Bratton said that after the accident his company management reviewed safety policies with workers.

"You got a lot of heavy equipment moving around, a lot of semis going," he said. "Any kind of work around heavy equipment can be dangerous."

The men were on a break. They looked across the construction site to where investigators surveyed the truck and the place where the man had died.

"When something tragic like this happens we all get together and tell everybody to watch out," Cady said.

Bratton said many in the crews know one another from working on similar projects.

"When something happens to another crew it hits you pretty bad because we all work together," he said.