Falling stone slab crushes and kills 60-year-old worker, Nebraska police say

A 60-year-old man was killed by a falling stone slab while at work in Nebraska, police said.

“Two one-thousand-pound slabs of granite or concrete fell on” Robert Irwin Jr., his daughter told KETV. “His heart had stopped.”

“It was the worst news I’ve ever had in my life,” she told the station.

The accident occurred while stone was being loaded onto a vehicle, according to the outlet, citing a preliminary report from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

It happened around 3 p.m. on July 17 at UGM Surfaces, a stone supplier in Omaha, according to a police news release.

Scott Allen, a spokesman for OSHA, told McClatchy News that they are investigating the incident, but added that it could be several months before the probe is concluded.

A representative for UGM Surfaces did not immediately respond to a request for comment from McClatchy News.

The company, which has six locations throughout the U.S., supplies stone products including granite, marble, quartzite, quartz and porcelain from across the globe, according to the company website.

There were 8 fatal injuries in the cut stone and cut stone product manufacturing industry in the U.S. in 2021, the most recent year with data available, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.