ALBANY, Ga. (WALB) - For the first time, WALB spoke to the family of the City of Albany employee who survived an accident that killed his coworker in December.

Clinton Bradford,56, is the surviving employee who was buried while working alongside 28-year-old Sebastian Dykes, Jr. on Dec. 18, 2024. Dykes was buried alive.

Since the accident, Bradford has been out of work still recovering from his critical injuries. Bradford was left with a broken hip and broken spots in his knee.

“He’s still got a long road to go. He’s not able to go back to work to do what he needs for his family,” she said. “It’s just really hurtful, stressful and to see him in a lot of pain.”

On Wednesday, the city admitted to several failures that contributed to his death, and the death of another city employee last February.

A 911 call made on Feb. 12, 2024, after the first on-the-job employee death, was the sounding alarm about a broken system inside the City of Albany’s safety protocols. Darrious Stephens drowned that day while collecting water samples in the Flint River during a rainstorm.

The city of Albany said a lack of Standard Operating Procedures contributed to Stephens’ death.

Ten months later, Tracy Wilson’s boyfriend Clinton Bradford just barely survived being buried alive as he worked on a collapsed sewer alongside Dykes.

“It could have been two deaths. Because if Clint was a little inch over, Clint could have been gone too,” Wilson said.

Newly released incident reports confirmed there wasn’t a trench box on the scene where Sebastian died but also that quote “it took several hours for firefighters to safely add some ‘trench boxes’ to the area in nearest where Dykes was.” The incident report also stated, “Dykes was buried so deeply that only a small portion of his head/hair was visible.” Two months later, Wilson says Clinton is still grieving the loss of Dykes.

WALB News 10′s Lenah Allen has spoken with both families of Stephens and Dykes. They said they’re still trying to cope with the loss of their loved ones. Dyke’s dad tells me he plans to stay on top of the city to continue getting answers about his son’s death.

Jacobs said both investigations into Darrious and Sebastian’s deaths are still ongoing, he plans to continue being transparent about the city’s findings.

Previous Coverage:

• Full Raw Interview: Albany City Manager promises safer working conditions following 2 employee deaths
• Official cause of death released in City of Albany employee work-related death
• Funeral set for Albany employee who died after work-related accident
• WALB Investigates: Why OSHA isn’t investigating Albany city employee death
• City of Albany launches internal investigation following on-the-job death of city sewer worker
• City of Albany worker who died after on-the-job accident identified
• ‘I just want answers’: Family of Albany city worker speaks out after fatal on-the-job accident
• City of Albany worker dead after on-the-job accident, another injured
• Investigation: Search for answers 2 months after Albany city employee’s death
• Body found in Flint River identified as missing Albany city worker
• Family of missing city of Albany employee speaks out, Day 9 search efforts end
• Name of missing Albany city employee released, search continues

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