Industrial accident claims area worker

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/Stock%20News/1643392/

May 31, 2008 (The Daily Telegram - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- -- A Douglas County man died Monday in an industrial accident at the Big Stone Power Plant in Big Stone, S.D.

The victim, Roberto Pearson, 24, was employed by Industrial Contractors Inc. of Bismarck, N.D., an outside contractor that was retained to perform maintenance at the facility.

"He was working on the fifth floor of the plant at a material lift opening, and he fell through that opening," at 7:35 a.m. on Memorial Day, said Bruce Beelman, area director of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration office in Bismarck, N.D. The fatal fall was from approximately 70 feet.

OSHA was on site Tuesday and Wednesday to investigate the accident, according to Otter Tail Power Co., a co-owner of the plant. It could take weeks before findings are released, Beelman said.

Born in Columbia, Roberto Pearson was adopted as an infant by Martin and Jerine Pearson of the Cozy Corner area in southwestern Douglas County. He graduated from Webster High School and studied welding at Wisconsin Indianhead Technical College in Superior before going to work for Stanley LaBounty in Two Harbors and later entering a boilermaker apprenticeship program as a welder and high rigger.

At the time of his accident, he was in the fourth day of a "straight through" air filtration maintenance job at the power plant -- work that required 12-hour work days, said Martin Pearson.

FULL story at link.

[newfie11]

1. South Dakota, the right to over work you state!!

I have never understood how the right to work equates to the right of employers to treat you like slaves. I have have worked 40 years in the medical field from coast to coast, Michigan, and IL. SD has the worst management I have ever seen. Employees across the board, not just in the medical field, are treated like shit.