Buried alive in Montreal

Survivor Laurent Theoret, 23

Getting buried alive is one of those things that you really don't want to have happen to you. But it was once relatively frequent, less so now, in spite of a recent construction mishap which saw a worker lose his life precisely in that way.
    According to one report, 11 workers died when their pit caved in while building the bridge foundation for what's now the Mederic Martin Bridge on Highway 15 over the Back River on March 5, 1958.
   Fourteen workers were down in a 40 foot pit when water rushed in, drowning all but three. The walls collapsed under pressure of spring ice that had unexpectedly broken away. The ice broke a steel bar that was holding walls apart, leading to a collapse.  
   Laurent Theoret, 23, of Ste. Eustache was among the few survivors. He said the whole thing lasted 30 seconds. He said most of the guys who died were aged between 18 and 24. Can't find the names listed anywhere. Theoret would be aged about 78 now if he's still alive.
   Seven workers died on Dec. 16, 1965 at 12:45 p.m. when wet cement came crashing down from the ceiling of a section of the Turcot Interchange on Notre Dame. There were 18 workers atop the structure and 12 below and the seven who were buried alive didn't make it.
   The CSN still makes reference to this as a particularly nasty disaster.
  The dead included Moise Curadeau, 34, Joseph Girard, 23, Pascale Racaniello, 26, Jean Poirier, 24, Vito Paradiso, 26. The botched work was done by the Shorring Erector Firm, a subsidiary of Dominic Supports and Forms.
  Rescue squads had to work extra hard because the cement that fell on the men had been poured four hours prior and it only takes eight hours to dry, so there was some risk that the victims would become encased in the dried concrete.
   To this day about 18 construction workers die on the job every year in the Kweebecs.
   Two young men were buried alive in a pile of coal on April 1, 1934 when they went to fetch some extra pieces for their families on St. Patrick St in Lasalle. Conrad Lefebvre, 20 and Armand Lemire, 13 both died after being crushed in the coal.
   Their families were poor and the employees of the Lasalle Coke company would permit them to grab a few pieces of coal lying around. The piles of coal were covered in snow, so an employee had dug a tunnel in the huge pile to better access the material. But it collapsed when the three boys were inside, only Rene Verroneau, 16 managed to get out alive.