A 39-year-old Minnesota man was killed at a construction site near Aspen this afternoon when his safety cord got tangled in a hard-rock construction drill and pulled him in to the spinning auger.
His name has not been released, neither has the name of the Denver construction company he worked for.
The accident happened in front of numerous co-workers about 3:30 p.m. at a residential construction site on the side of a hill at 1501 Maroon Creek Road, said Pitkin County Sheriff’s spokeswoman Renee Rayton.
By the time coworkers could stop the geological drilling rig, the man was dead, she said.
“His body was tangled up in the drill,” she said.
The safety cord is meant to keep workers stable as they work on the hillside. Geological drilling rigs often are used to place pilings and do other foundation work on heavy rock.
Several of his co-workers who witnessed the fatal accident were treated at the scene by staff from the Aspen Counseling Center, she said.
