2 Workers Dead After Sand Wall Collapses At Upper Brookville Home

UPPER BROOKVILLE, NY — One worker is dead and rescue teams are searching for a second worker's body after a work site accident in Upper Brookville, police said.

Rescue crews swarmed the area of Wolver Hollow and Pine Valley roads around 4:45 p.m. Tuesday. Police sent at least one helicopter to the work site for reports that two workers were trapped in a trench.

Bethpage and Massapequa fire departments were responding along with multiple other resources across the county.

Photos posted on social media appeared to show several people gathered around the trench and numerous emergency vehicles responding to the scene.

Around 4:45 p.m., two men ages 57 and 45, found themselves at the bottom of a 30-foot hole, police Lt. Richard Lebrun told News 12 in an interview. They were excavating when one of the walls "gave way," he said.

"They were buried by between 5 and 7 feet of dirt," he said.

Police officers pulled a man from the dirt pile. He was declared dead a short time later, Lebrun said.

Crews were in the middle of trying to find the other man when more sides of the wall began to cave in, LeBrun said.

"They had to now move out of the way," he said. "We're re-securing the area right now. Unfortunately what became a rescue operation sadly turned into a recovery effort."

The workers were installing a septic tank at a private home when a wall of sand collapsed and fell, Newsday reported.

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