Death of public works employee shows risks they face everyday
By: Terry Kovarik
Updated: April 18, 2012
"She was in the frontage road laying down and for some reason the mower rolled back and pinned her to the ground," said Ed Weisner, Department of Public Works Director.
But within 12-hours after being hospitalized, Lucht died from her injuries. Word of her death hit everyone hard from west side garage coworkers to the department director.
"A very dedicated employee. Well liked. I know family was important to her," Weisner said.
Lucht was working alone. That's not uncommon, depending on work load and staffing. Weisner says they'll now look at making changes to improve safety.
"In terms of how we assign crews and how we do maintenance, we will obviously make the revisions necessary to our policies," he said.
But for now, the department is focused on helping Lucht's co-workers.
"We had counselors back out on site this morning and let employees just talk about it." Weisner said.
Donna Lucht is survived by two adult children and two grandchildren.
Local 5's Terry Kovarik has the story.
