Trench collapse victim ID'd as Tennessee teen

Days shy of his 20th birthday, a teen from Tennessee lost his life Thursday when dirt and debris caved in atop him as he worked in a trench off Dixie Highway.

Jonathon Moore, of Cedar Grove, Tenn., was officially pronounced dead shortly after 9 p.m. Thursday, though fire department officials said the teen had died in the trench hours before.

Deputy Coroner Larry Carroll said Moore died of traumatic asphyxia and blunt force impact injuries.

A fellow construction worker was also trapped from the waist down in the trench but survived the collapse and was rescued just before 7 p.m. Thursday.

For more than four hours, firefighters worked in the blazing heat to free the man, who was taken by ambulance from the scene.

Emergency responders were called shortly after 2 p.m. Thursday to the 13000 block of Dixie Highway where they discovered the two men trapped in an 8- to 10-foot-deep ditch.

The workers were in the trench digging sewer lines when a heavy heap of shifted dirt and concrete on the trench's edge gave way, said Pleasure Ridge Park Fire Protection District assistant chief Dan Vanover.

It is not clear what safety measures were in place at the construction site, but Vanover said that inside the trench was a trench box, a structural device meant to strengthen unstable soil and protect workers in collapses.

The men worked for LeFevre Construction, based in Jackson, Tenn. Multiple emails to the company have not yet been returned.

Reporter Matthew Glowicki can be reached at (502) 582-4989. Follow him on Twitter at @MattGlo.