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Worker Crushed To Death By 100-Foot Rock Salt Pile In Bucks County

By Tim Jimenez

Falls Twp., Pa., (CBS) -- A freak accident left one man dead on the job in Bucks County. Authorities say he was crushed by a collapsing pile of rock salt, measuring 100 feet tall.

A man on the job, and just like that, his life was taken away.

"All indications are, just a tragic accident, but it is obviously still under investigation," says Falls Township Fire Marshal Rich Dippolito.

Dippolito says it happened around 3:30 in the afternoon at the International Salt Storage facility off Bordentown Road. He says a man in an excavator was working on a massive mountain of rock salt.

"When the salt pile collapsed around his excavator, he was trapped inside," says Dippolito.

Rescuers arrived, trying to get the man out, but Dippolito says they were overwhelmed.

"The salt kept collapsing around us. We had to hook up heavy equipment to pull the excavator away to actually get to the patient," he said.

And when they finally reached him, he says it was too late. Authorities have not identified the victim. No one else was injured.

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