Visitation will be held Friday for Konrad Tucharski, 41, who was killed Monday while working on an underground sewer line in Sauganash. GoFundMe / Funeral Services Konrad Turcharski CHICAGO — A fundraising page has gathered close to $21,000 for the family of Konrad Tucharski, a city worker who died Monday after a sewer trench collapsed around him in Sauganash.
Water Department employee Tucharski, 41, was replacing a sewer line in the 6000 block of North Sauganash Avenue early Monday afternoon when the 20-foot hole caved in, officials said.
He later was pronounced dead at St. Francis Hospital in Evanston.
The cause of the incident remains under investigation, officials said.
The GoFundMe page, which saw some 270 individual donors in less than two days, described Tucharsky as "an awesome guy, down to earth and always energetic."
Tucharski's visitation is from 3 to 9 p.m. Friday at Matz Funeral Home, 410 E. Rand Road in suburban Mount Prospect. A funeral Mass will be offered at 2 p.m. Saturday at St. Thomas of Villanova Church in Palatine.
Tucharski is survived by his mother, wife and two daughters.
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City Worker Killed In Sauganash Trench Collapse
By Alex Nitkin | February 13, 2017 4:33pm | Updated on February 13, 2017 5:29pm
A trench collapsed on a water department worker who was helping replace an underground pipe near Peterson Avenue and Keeler Avenue, killing him, officials said. DNAinfo/Alex Nitkin SAUGANASH, CHICAGO, IL — A city water department worker died Monday afternoon after an underground trench collapsed around him during a routine project, officials said.
Around 1:15 p.m., the man was working underground near the intersection of Peterson Avenue and Sauganash Avenue when "the hole collapsed on him," according to Cmdr. Curtis Hudson, a Chicago Fire Department spokesman.
He was brought to St. Francis Hospital in Evanston, where he was pronounced dead, Hudson said.
The man, identified as 41-year-old Konrad Tucharski, had been working on a "planned construction project" to replace a sewer pipe, according to Gary Litherland, a spokesman for the water department.
"We send our prayers and sympathies to the family and friends of the deceased employee," Litherland said.
The cause of the mishap remains under investigation, he added.
Crews had been working on the project in the 6000 block of North Sauganash Avenue for at least two weeks, according to John Rus, who lives on the block.
"They were out here day and night, in the freezing cold and everything," Rus said. "I even brought them donuts one morning. This is unbelievable."