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A Winona Lake man was airlifted Saturday evening from Kosciusko County after being trapped in a 6-foot deep trench for several hours, according to Sgt. Chad Hill of the Kosciusko County Sheriff's Department.
Jim Nichols, 36, was installing tile at a county ditch in a cultivated soybean field near county roads 800 South and 700 East shortly before 4 p.m..
Nichols was working with Donnie Hamby, 48, of Pierceton, who was operating a small backhoe removing dirt for the tiling.
Hamby told police that they had run about 100 feet of trench and he had just removed a scoop of dirt when he spun the excavator around to find the trench wall had collapsed.
Hamby immediately jumped off the backhoe, found Nichols buried up to his shoulders and tried to dig him out by hand, police said.
Hamby called the Kosciusko County 911 center at 4:03 p.m. EMS and multiple fire departments were dispatched to the scene.
Dirt was removed from the 2-foot-wide trench, and rescuers were able to stabilize the wall and remove Nichols shortly after 6 p.m.
Nichols was conscious but was classified as critical at the scene and was immediately airlifted to Parkview Hospital in Fort Wayne, police said.
