Trench collapse traps SoCal worker

MUSCOY, Calif., May 12 (UPI) -- A Southern California construction worker was freed late Friday after being trapped in a collapsed trench for more than six hours.

San Bernardino firefighters had to use a winch to pull two pallets of cinderblocks out of the hole where Jose Jimenez had been working when the sides collapsed.

The collapse sent dirt and the cinderblocks sliding down the sides, pinning the hapless worker who had been digging a septic system in the yard of a home in Muscoy, The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, Calif., reported.

Jimenez was buried about waist deep; however, the blocks and dirt impeded his breathing. He was hustled off to a hospital but appeared to be in fairly good shape.