Contact: Beth Stone 508-584-8120
BROCKTON – Federal, state and local investigators are conducting an active and ongoing probe into a fatal construction incident today in Hanson, Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz has announced.
At 11:30 a.m. today, Hanson Police received a 911 call for a report of a man trapped at a construction site at 50 Dwight Street. Hanson Police and Hanson Fire responded and found a single-family home with a partial foundation collapse on one side, and a male worker trapped beneath. The man was pronounced dead at the scene. He has been identified as 51 year-old Gerceir Osvaldo DeFaria.
Hanson Police contacted Massachusetts State Police assigned to the Plymouth County District Attorney’s Office and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), and an investigation commenced.
Simultaneously, Hanson Police contacted the Plymouth County Technical Rescue Team, and this became a recovery mission to work safely to extricate the victim. The team, along with Hanson Police and Fire worked for over three hours before the victim’s body was removed from the site at approximately 2:49 pm.
Preliminarily, it appears that the property homeowner was having the basement waterproofed today, and a trench was being dug on the side of the home when the foundation attached to the house broke away and fell, pinning DeFaria underneath.
The investigation is active and ongoing by OSHA, Massachusetts State Police, and Hanson Police.