A family is desperate for answers after their loved one died on the job in Burnsville on Wednesday.
Pierre Mack, 29, died after a boom truck hit him just before 9 a.m. He was a cement mixer working on improvements to Interstate 35W.
“I’m always texting him to be safe, be careful out there. I’m trying to figure out, did he get run over? How?” Bernard Harris, Mack’s father, said.
Harris told WCCO News he refuses to call what happened an “accident.”
“There’s no such thing as an accident — humans do things,” he said. “I’m quite sure my son would’ve heard the backup noise and he would’ve gotten out of the way.
Harris added that Mack was an avid fisherman and budding entrepreneur who was working as a cement mason.
“I ain’t going to be able to text him every morning and say, ‘Good morning, son. Be safe.'” he said. “I’m so tired of crying.”
The Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry opened an investigation that Harris hopes will reveal more answers about his son’s death.
Mack’s death is the fifth construction-related death in Minnesota this year and the first at a Minnesota Department of Transportation site since 2023.
“You are not going to let my son go in vain. He is somebody. His name is Pierre Ramon Mack. He worked through MnDOT,” Harris said.Â
Harris says to prevent another tragedy like his son’s, there should be more safety equipment.
“They should have cameras on the back of their trucks, monitors outside their trucks. If the cameras don’t work, fix them,” Harris said.
Federal law requires all trucks under 10,000 pounds to have backup cameras, but the rule only applies to vehicles made since 2018. The rule also doesn’t apply to trucks heavier than 10,000 pounds.
Minnesota laws also require specific lighting for construction vehicles so they can be seen up to 60 feet away.
Those are just some of the standards state investigators will review as they visit the site and interview both employees and employers over the next several weeks.
WCCO asked MnDOT and labor officials for the names of the contractors that employed both Mack and the man who operated the boom truck, as well as whether those working relationships will continue after this incident.
