AUTHOR'S NOTE: Had to make one small modification here. The original series stated the victim was from Czechoslovakia, but by the time of this incident as stated in the show that country had been dissolved for just under three years. So I've made him an immigrant from just the Czech Republic. We can pretend he has one parent from Czechia and the other from Slovakia.

…and pulls one out. It reads "INCIDENT 0105111995". Like the previous file, it has a crude drawing, this one showing a stick figure in a hole with some substance pouring on him.

Ruby: "We're doing, like, Incident 0105111995 next."

Ruby wheels herself back over and opens the file, examining the first page. Its photo depicts what appears to be a construction site, with utes and construction machines strewn around. A dump truck is dumping what looks like several tons' worth of sand into a hole, and the bright orange vest of one of the workers can be seen peeking through the gaps in the stream of sand.

Shannon: "That's the one where the construction worker is suffocated, right?"

Ruby: "Yep."

Shannon: "Alright, I've got the video up. Let's begin."

Shannon turns the laptop to us, and the camera moves to cover the screen…

The grayscale image at the beginning depicts the same construction site from the file photo. At the centre of the site are about eight or so workers donning their bright orange vests and yellow hardhats, apparently conversing about something. Near them is a hole in the ground flanked by two orange cones, and a white ute and a small excavator are close to the camera. Behind the workers are a bulldozer and a line of utes and trucks in varying colours.

Date of Incident: 5 November, 1995

Location of Incident: New York City, New York

The image fades to colour and the video begins. Several camera shots show the workers moving across the site and conversing with each other about what they are doing.

Unnamed Worker #1: "This hole is the one right?"

Unnamed Worker #2: "This is the one."

The camera now shows the hole, which looks about one-and-a-half metres deep.

Ruby: (Narrating) "Milos Dudak was like, an immigrant to America from Czechia."

A new camera angle shows Milos climbing down into the hole.

Ruby: (Narrating) "...And he felt like a very lucky man."

A shot shows Milos in the hole. He is slightly taller than the hole's depth. He is carrying a shovel in his right hand.

Milos: "How deep do you want it? You want it deeper?"

A second passes before Milos turns around and gets to work, plunging his shovel into the hole's base and flinging dirt out.

Ruby: (Narrating) "Being new to the States with a wife and child to support, this construction job was like, his family's lifeline. Milos was a model employee if there ever was one."

A new camera shot shows another man, donning sunglasses and a red and white-striped hat in the driver's seat of what looks like some sort of truck, with various construction site features passing by the passenger window.

Ruby: (Narrating) "Tim McNara on the other hand was, like, the textbook definition of idiot. More often than not he showed up nursing a major hangover."

The angle changes to one of Tim inside the cabin.

Ruby: (Narrating) "And today he took the wheel of a dump truck whilst as drunk as Shannon got at that party the other night."

Shannon: (Narrating) "Did you really have to bring that up?"

We cut back to Milos digging in the hole, which is now about two metres deep. We then cut to the grayscale footage from one of the construction site's security cameras, positioned far behind the hole. To its right we see the truck Tim is piloting reverse towards the hole Milos is digging in. Another angle is seen from just behind Milos as the truck comes to a halt just a few centimetres from the hole.

Ruby: (Narrating) "Ugh… talk about being, like, dumped on at work."

The camera reverts to the angle from the hole, now zoomed in on the dump truck, as the back cover of its dump box slides open.

Ruby: (Narrating) "Milos had no clue about the crushing blow fate was about to deal him."

Return to the security camera footage as the truck's dump box begins to lift up. From the hole, Milos looks up wondering what the noise is just in time to see a wave of sand pour from the truck's dump box right on top of him. An angle from just outside the hole shows the sand pouring onto Milos.

Ruby: (Narrating) "Within seconds Milos disappeared under like, three tons of sand."

The other workers are still performing their duties, unaware of what is happening. Eventually, they look over and notice the sand filling the hole, and a wave of panic sets in as Milos's comrades rush over to the hole, either screaming at Tim to stop or waving their hands to get his attention. Then they scramble over to the filled hole and begin digging frantically.

Ruby: (Narrating) "His co-workers rushed to his rescue, digging away the sand from his head so he could breathe."

A new camera angle from just below the truck shows the workers scooping away the sand as fast as they can manage. Eventually, they extract Milos's head from the pile of sand.

Ruby: (Narrating) "His co-workers rushed to his rescue, digging away the sand from his head so he could breathe. They thought they had saved him."

Unnamed Worker #2: "Milos, say something!"

Ruby: (Narrating) "They were wrong. Shannon, analysis."

Cut to a shot of Shannon in the office. She is holding her tablet horizontally, the screen displaying a model of a human being, lying down on their back, with the respiratory tract and associated structures visible. Several arrows are pointing at their chest.

Shannon: "What's going on here is something called crush asphyxia. Basically, Milos still has lots of sand pressing down on his chest, and that is preventing his chest cavity from expanding, which in turn prevents his lungs from expanding to draw air into them. And with every breath he lets out the pressure on his chest from the sand increases, further restricting his breathing. You know how boa constrictors squeeze their prey to death? That's basically what's going on with Milos here."

Cut back to Milos's comrades still digging and attempting to get him to say something.

Shannon: (Narrating) "They probably could've saved him if they dug away the sand from his chest as soon as possible… but that didn't cross their minds. And unfortunately, it probably wasn't a quick death. He probably would have been aware of what was happening for a few minutes. Pretty horrible way to go, if you ask me."

And with that, the camera zooms in on the late Milos Dudak's face as the video turns grayscale again.

WAY TO DIE #422

CONSTRICTION ACCIDENT

We return to Shannon and Ruby in their office.

Ruby: "You know, this, like, reminds me of an incident that took place at a California beach in July of 2014. Apparently, a man was crushed to death after a sand tunnel collapsed on him."

Shannon: "Yeah. Crush asphyxia is no joke. As we saw, it can kill in minutes. Anyways, next file, please. My turn to narrate."

Ruby nods. She marks off the file for incident 0105111995 with a yellow slip before wheeling over to file it away and get another one…