18-year-old apprentice dies on Wisconsin bridge project
Third fatality since 2012
An 18-year-old man lost his life just three months after starting work for Lunda Construction Company. The carpenter's apprentice was mixing concrete for the Richard I. Bong Memorial Bridge resurfacing project when a rough-terrain forklift struck and killed him. The bridge spans St. Louis Bay between Superior and Duluth, Minnesota. Since 2012, three workers have died while working on Lunda highway construction projects.
U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigators found the highway construction company allowed an employee to operate a forklift even though he had a physical restriction specifying no use of his right hand and lacked adequate training.