LAKE FOREST : Flying Metal Kills Man at Housing Site

A Riverside man was killed at a construction site Monday when a small piece of metal from a bulldozer snapped off, flew 30 feet and struck him in the chest, authorities said.

Jerry Steven Bechel, 31, was pronounced dead at the scene, Sheriff’s Lt. Richard J. Olson said.

Olson said the accident occurred shortly before 10:30 a.m. at the Foothill Ranch housing development in Lake Forest, an unincorporated area near El Toro.

Workers were folding one of the metal tracks on a large bulldozer with a forklift when part of the track snapped off, according to Jim Johnson, vice president of McCoy Construction Co. of Calabasas, the contractor providing the grading for the development.

Bechel, a driver for McCoy Construction, was standing by his truck 30 feet from the bulldozer when he was struck in the chest by a piece of metal “about the size of a fingernail,” Johnson said. The metal pierced a blood vessel in his chest, causing him to bleed to death, Johnson said.

“This was an extremely freak accident,” Johnson said. “It has nothing to do with construction. . . . It was one of those things that if you were in there a thousand other times it wouldn’t have happened.”

Bechel was the first McCoy employee killed on the job, Johnson added.

Jim Brown, district manager for Cal/OSHA in Anaheim, said the accident was being investigated.