A 26-year-old worker was killed 120 feet below Grand Central Terminal last Thursday when chuck of concrete struck him on the head. Michael O'Brien, a native of Westfield, Wis., was the first sandhog to be killed on the job since 1997. His father Robert, a construction foreman, was 10 feet away from him at the time of the incident.
Novelist, TV writer and former sandhog Thomas Kelly told the Echo Monday: "Sandhogs are both miners and construction workers -- putting those two jobs together is always going to be dangerous no matter how much attention is paid to safety."
"I watched it happen, and I tried to save his life, and I couldn't," Robert O'Brien told the Daily News.
His father got him the job by bringing him to the office of Richard Fitzsimmons, business manager of Local Union 147.
O'Brien's girlfriend died of a suspected heroin overdose in Westfield earlier this year and he completed a three-month term behind bars for possession in August.
"He was a handsome, strong kid," Fitzsimmons told the New York Times, adding that both father and son were "extremely happy that he was able to find some work."
The business manager told the Times that Michael O'Brien died working on a project that will last for generations.
A spokesman for the Dragados construction company said it would pay for his funeral expenses.
