PETALUMA (KRON) — A construction worker was killed Wednesday morning while working on a Highway 101 widening project south of Petaluma.
28-year-old Jared Overfield, of Novato, appears to have been crushed by a rolling pipe at the road-widening construction site. The California Highway Patrol had previously identified the victim as a 33-year-old Santa Rosa man.
Overfield was an employee of the San Rafael-based Maggiora & Ghilotti Inc. engineering contractor firm.
A forklift operator set the pipe on the ground and it rolled toward an embankment. Overfield was in front of the forklift and tried to stop the rolling pipe, CHP Officer Kerri Post said.
The accident was reported at 7:16 a.m. at Kastania Road near Petaluma Boulevard South, with reports of a worker trapped underneath a pipe.
About 10 minutes later, reports indicated that the worker had died.
The California Highway Patrol initially responded to the accident, but the Sonoma County Fire and Cal-OSHA are now responding to the scene of the accident.
This isn’t the first accident at this construction site.
In September of 2014, two constructions workers were hurt when a big-rig hit a bundle of steel rods. The rebar fell into both lanes of the highway and into the center divide, hitting the two men.