photo by: Mike Yoder

The Hamm Waste Services landfill north of Lawrence is pictured in this file photo from 2007.

Federal authorities continue to investigate a landfill accident that killed a Lawrence man three months ago.

The U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, investigation into the January incident that killed 59-year-old Mark J. Wilson is ongoing, OSHA officials confirmed last week.

The agency opened its inspection of landfill operator Hamm Inc. the day the accident occurred, according to OSHA data available online. Wilson was a Hamm employee.

OSHA has six months to complete investigations and to issue citations and propose penalties if any violations of workplace safety and health standards are found, a Department of Labor spokesperson said. The agency does not release details about its inspections while they are pending.

The fatal accident happened at 7:10 a.m. Jan. 4 at the Hamm Landfill on U.S. Highway 24. The location is just north of Lawrence, but in Jefferson County.

Wilson was on foot operating a “tipper” machine when he was pinned against the dock by a semi-trailer backing onto the machine, according to a preliminary report from the Kansas Highway Patrol. A tipper is a large piece of equipment used to dump trash from trailers into the landfill.

Wilson died at the scene, according to the Highway Patrol’s report. The driver of the semi-trailer, 29-year-old Todd Dunstan of Beloit, had no apparent injury.

Later in January, OSHA also opened an inspection into the truck driver’s employer, Beloit-based Dunstan Trucking LLC, according to online records.

Staff at the landfill referred a reporter’s call to Hamm headquarters in Perry, where a representative didn’t respond to a messages last week.

In addition to the Lawrence landfill, Hamm operates a number of quarries and provides other construction and paving services, according to its website.

Dunstan Trucking owner Eric Dunstan said Todd Dunstan is his son and has driven trucks for the company eight years.

Eric Dunstan said his company had worked with Hamm for a number of years, driving large trailers of trash to the landfill and dumping them, as his son was doing the day of the accident. Dunstan said his company has lost its work with Hamm, at least temporarily, because OSHA ordered the companies to cease all interaction while the inspections are pending.

Dunstan said he wouldn’t answer questions about the incident while OSHA’s investigation is still open. However, he said he and his employees were “distraught” about the death of Wilson, a person they worked with regularly.

“It was a tragic situation for everyone involved,” Dunstan said.

Wilson was a Kansas City, Kan., native whose “many skills” were put to use in the construction industry, according to his obituary. He’d taken heavy equipment classes at North Central Kansas Technical College. He also worked as a farrier, shoeing horses, and his hobbies included collecting and building model railroads and, in his younger days, saddle bronc riding at rodeos.