ALBANY, Ga. (WALB) - After the city of Albany admitted to failures in two employee on-the-job deaths, the city also released incident reports that share new details on both deadly accidents.

On Feb. 12, 2024, Public Works employee Darrious Stephens drowned while collecting water samples in the Flint River during a rain storm. Ten months later, Sebastian Dykes Jr., another public works employee, was buried alive while he was working on a collapsed sewer.

Albany City manager Terrell Jacobs admitted Wednesday the city had no standard operating procedures in place at the time Stephens died. He also shared that during Sebastian’s deadly accident, the required safety equipment known as a trench box was not used or on the scene, at the time employees were working in the collapsed sewer hole.

A newly released incident report confirmed there wasn’t a trench box on the scene where Sebastian died. The report also revealed firefighters had to add some trench boxes to the area nearest where Dykes was buried alive.

Another incident report details that Stephens was reported missing 19 days before his remains were found. It states the employee who was supposed to be with Stephens while he was collecting samples told first responders that “usually one person stays inside the truck so paperwork doesn’t get wet while the other gets out and goes down to the river with a bucket and rope to get the samples.”

The incident report went on to say the employee didn’t know if Stephens had the rope tied around his arm, as he advised workers not to do so.

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