Teenage worker killed in crane accident

Editor's Note: The name of a contractor was corrected below.

A work site accident claimed the life of a 16-year-old construction worker Tuesday near Randles in Cape Girardeau County.

Cape Girardeau County Coroner John Clifton confirmed Tristin James Wood of Marquand, Missouri, was fatally injured at a job site on Highway 272.

Clifton said Wood was struck by the boom of a construction crane and was pronounced dead at the scene at 11:41 a.m.

First responders were paged to the scene about 11 a.m., with reports that a crane had fallen on a subject, where construction crews were working on a county bridge.

A witness who was gardening near the scene said he saw the crane malfunction, breaking and then striking the worker next to the crane. The job foreman, a relative of the deceased, was operating the crane, said Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Department Capt. David James.

James said there will be no criminal investigation, but the construction company had a safety inspector en route to the scene Tuesday afternoon.

Clifton said the cause of the accident is still being investigated and an autopsy is scheduled for Thursday morning at Mineral Area Hospital in Farmington, Missouri.

Plans to replace the bridge crossing the Old Whitewater Channel began in 2012. Robertson Bridge & Grading of Poplar Bluff, Missouri, was awarded the contract for the job by the Cape Girardeau County Commission. The company specializes in highway, bridge and other infrastructure projects.

skluesner@semissourian.com

388-3648

Pertinent address:

Randles, Mo.