Rotschy operator escapes injury when excavator sinks at port rail project

Port of Longview, company officials say neither operator nor the company were at fault for incident at old Long-Bell log pond

An excavator lies mostly submerged in the old Long-Bell log pond after a rock platform it was working on gave way when underlying soils shifted on Sept 8.

An employee of Rotschy Inc. is lucky to be alive after the excavator he was operating sank into the old Long-Bell log pond in the Longview Industrial area earlier this month.

So far there is no official explanation for why underlying soil and rock fill shifted and caused the 20-ton machine to quickly sink 10 to 12 feet into the water. The fall completely submerged the machine’s tracks and cab, leaving only the boom and bucket exposed above water.

The operator, identified only as Mike, “was able to immediately extricate himself from the excavator without injury,” according to a report by John Carlson of Integrity Safety Services of Vancouver.

The excavator was dumping rock into the log pond as fill to make room for new rail lines Rotschy is building for the Port of Longview.

The excavator operator “has been at Rotschy for over 22 years. He has a lot of experience and is very skilled. Operator error was not identified as a cause or contributing factor in this incident,” Douglas Hiivala, Rotschy’s director of occupational health and communication, said Friday.

He and Adam Fulton, operations director for the port, said there is nothing to indicate that Rotschy was at fault in the Sept. 8 incident.

Hiivala said “industry standards were in play when this event occurred, and further measures that exceed industry standards have been implemented since (then) to ensure no more incidents occur.’’

Fulton said the operator was lucky to escape. Had the excavator rolled over, the worker may not have escaped, Fulton said.

Fulton said the underwater survey of the soils will be needed to determine what went wrong. The underlying soils in the log pond are soft and muddy. A fabric barrier was placed over them and rock was added on top to create a work platform for the excavator.

The log pond is at least as old as Longview itself. The Long-Bell Lumber Co. used it to store and bring logs to the giant sawmill that helped give birth to the city in the early 1920s.

Rotschy is working under a $44.7 million contract with the Port of Longview to develop the port’s long-planned rail expansion. The contract is the largest in port history and involves building two new rail lines linking the port to the BNSF tracks and preparing road beds for two more.

The company also is working under extra scrutiny because it has a checkered safety history and has a been fined multiple times for violating child labor laws. The State Department of Labor & Industries in April announced it is seeking criminal charges against the firm in connection with a 2023 jobsite injury in which a 16-year-old employee lost both legs. The Clark County Prosecutor’s Office has not made a charging decision.

“Regardless of the level of scrutiny by the public, government agencies or any other source, Rotschy utilizes industry standard safety practices and is constantly seeking ways to improve safety,” Hiivala said.

Rotschy, a non-union contractor based in Battle Ground, was the lowest bidder for the port work. Local union construction trades unsuccessfully tried to convince the port to reject Rotschy’s bid because of its poor safety record.

Port commissioners hired Integrity Safety Services to monitor Rotschy’s safety practices, an unusual move.

According to Carlson’s report for Integrity, “Mike was loading fill material into the (log) pond from a pad adjacent to the water. As he was loading the material into the pond, he felt the machine moving and rocks falling into the water.

“In … less than 5 seconds (Per Mike, the equipment operator), the excavator dropped down approximately 10 feet to 12 feet, submerging the excavator and cab in a vertical upright position.”

Evan Jones, one of three port commissioners, was less wiling to exonerate anyone for the accident. “We don’t know enough at this point to make a determination” about whether Rotschy was at fault or some unknown soil condition caused the incident, Jones said Thursday.

Jones, a union electrician, was the only port commissioner to vote against awarding the contract to Rotschy. Port staff said the agency legally had to hire the lowest bidder.

Jones said the incident brought back tragic, Army-days memory of three friends who drowned in Iraq when the ground collapsed under their armored vehicle, causing it to roll into a canal. “It was a very common story” in Iraq, he said.

The excavator was removed from the water right away. Work on the area has been halted for now but the rail project, which is two miles in length, will not be delayed, Fulton said.

Neither port nor Rotschy personnel could say whether the state Labor & Industries will investigate. I could not reach the agency for comment last week.