TRAGEDY IN ALDAN
2 WORKERS DIE WHILE WORKING IN MANHOLE
Authorities secure the area where two A to U Services employees were found unconscious at the bottom of a thirty foot manhole on Thursday in Aldan. Both men were conducting a dye test on the sewer system on West Rively Avenue between Sycamore and Magnolia.
ALDAN>> Two men died while working in a manhole in Aldan Thursday morning doing sewage line testing, authorities said.
Rescue crews pulled the two workers out of the manhole at the corner of West Rively Avenue & South Sycamore Avenue after they were discovered unresponsive just after 11 a.m.
Aldan Police Chief Ken Coppola Thursday evening confirmed the identities to be Daniel Cleaver and Matt DiSands, a pair in their 20s from Prospect Park with strong connections to the law enforcement community who were working for A to U Services, Inc. when their fatal accident occurred.
Cleaver is the son of A to U Services Inc. owner James Cleaver. Matt DiSands had recently graduated from the Delaware County Municipal Police Academy and his father, David DiSands, is a patrol officer with Upper Chichester Police Department. They were alumni of Interboro High School.
According to Coppola, the four contractors of Glenolden-based A to U were doing sewage dye testing at two areas in the borough: one pair at Magnolia and Sycamore avenues and the other one block down at Rively and Sycamore avenues. This was the procedure needed to do the dye testing that was underway.
“We just talked to a couple of the guys from that company,” said Dino Liberati, who was doing concrete work a block away. “We joked about them having a camera to do their work.”
Communication was lost between the two sets of workers at some point doing the work and an emergency was called in.
“At 11:16 a.m. the police department received a 911 call of two men in a sewer hole about 30 feet down, they appeared to be unconscious,” said Coppola. “Fire rescue was notified and they went down and brought both bodies up.”
Fire departments from Collingdale, Upper Darby and Springfield helped with the recovery of the bodies, as did the county’s Certified Hazardous Materials Response Team and a number of other local and county emergency responders.
Coppola did say that their deaths were pronounced at the scene.
What was not made clear in the very early stages of the preliminary investigation is how and why the two men were overcome in the manhole, falling approximately 30 feet and how long they were underground. There was no information about how frequently those A to U contractors were working in that area before Thursday’s accident. There was no official reason or action attributed to their deaths, but being overcome by fumes or other working conditions “is the way that it appears right now,” according to Coppola.
The Delaware County Medical Examiner’s office will perform autopsies.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration will be investigating the accident.
“I just spoke to OSHA and hazmat. How long they’re going to be here I’m not sure,” said Coppola.
The deaths of DiSands and Cleaver were immediately felt in Aldan and beyond.
“One of the victims, his father is a police officer, not in this community but in another Delaware County community. The other victim we all know, we know the family,” said Coppola.
A to U owner James Cleaver could not be reached for comment Thursday.