Area man dies in trench collapse
By RAVAE EDWARDSNews Tribune

A Holts Summit man was pronounced dead Monday afternoon as a result of construction related incident in Fortuna near the Moniteau and Morgan County line.Brian L. Reeves, 29, was pronounced dead at 3:20 p.m. by Moniteau County Coroner Lloyd Fulks, according to Sgt. Gary Simmons with the Moniteau County Sheriff's Department.Simmons said a 911-call was received at about 2:45 p.m. stating a man was trapped after a trench collapsed on a sewer related job site in Fortuna.Several area rescue teams worked to recover Reeves' body from the trench, which was estimated between 10- and 14-feet deep at the time of the accident. His body was recovered at about 4:46 p.m.An autopsy is scheduled to be performed by the Boone County Medical Examiner's Office in Columbia.Simmons said the cause of the incident is unknown at this time but the matter is still under investigation and he expects an OSHA representative to pick up the investigation on Tuesday.Reeves was employed by Ken Kauffman Excavating in Jefferson City at the time of the accident, Simmons said.

Authorities from Ken Kauffman Excavating were unavailable for comment Tuesday morning.


That is the story in the newspaper, the News Tribune, today. It still seems so unbelievable. The funeral will be Friday. I know that everything happens for a reason, it’s just hard to find the reason in this. It’s not going to matter what the OSHA representative finds in his investigation, it won’t change the fact that Brian is gone, it won’t ease his family’s suffering. It won’t bring him back. Answers won’t explain ‘Why him?’. Maybe we’ll never know why him.