The Minnesota Department of Transportation enacted its first-ever statewide safety stand down September 29 to honor two contract workers killed within two days recently while working on roads.
The first incident occurred September 24 in Burnsville, when a Freightliner 114SD truck backed into 29-year-old Pierre Raymon Mack. According to Minnesota State Police reports, Mack had been working on a jobsite along Interstate 35 at the time of his death.
The second incident occurred a little over 24 hours later in Maple Grove, when 25-year-old Adam Fredrick Smith died in a similar incident. According to MSP reports, Smith was killed when a 2016 Peterbilt 567 dump truck backed into him on a jobsite on eastbound Highway 610. New Look Contracting of Rogers, Minnesota, was working the jobsite where Smith was killed, according to a report from The Minnesota Star Tribune.
Mack was a member of the Laborers’ International Union of North America Local 563, and Smith was a member of the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 139.
The work stoppage was not only to honor Mack and Smith, according to MnDOT, but to also focus on improving safety in work zones. The department said it was a time for its staff to recommit to safety, including “discussions, listening and sharing personal experiences to help our agency learn from each other to help improve safety for all of us.”
"Tragic incidents like this are a sobering reminder that contact with objects or equipment remains the leading cause of workplace fatalities in Minnesota,” said Commissioner Nicole Blissenbach of the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry. “On average, eight workers lose their lives each year due to these types of incidents.”
