Excavator falls into hole during demolition work in Mechanicsville

MECHANICSVILLE, Iowa (KCRG) - No one was hurt after an excavator fell through a basement at a demolition site this afternoon.

It happened in Mechanicsville before 11:30 a.m. Tuesday at a privately owned building on East 1st Street. Crews tell TV9 a hydraulic line on their excavator broke, causing the accident.

Corum Construction was the company doing the demolition. Owner Rich Corum said they were pretty much done with the work and just starting the clean-up process.

That’s when the line broke and caused the whole excavator to stop working.

“A lot of guys that run excavators will know you can put your bucket out a little bit and go over a hole, you know, couple few feet. That’s kind of what I did. And that hose, when that hose gave out, there’s nothing I could do. And all the rest of the basement was backfilled though except for that little spot right there,” said Corum.

Again, thankfully no one was hurt during the incident. Corum said things like this happen from time to time and they were able to replace the hose and get back to work later Tuesday afternoon.

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