Emily Hamer | Wisconsin State Journal
A strong gust of wind Wednesday blew over a wall that was being placed for a new home, causing the wall to fall onto a construction worker and kill him, according to the DeForest Police Department.
Guadalupe Cervantes Vallin, 42, of Sturtevant, died from injuries he suffered during the workplace accident, according to preliminary results from a forensic exam, the Dane County Medical Examiner’s Office said Thursday.
DeForest police responded about 2:30 p.m. to a medical emergency at a construction site in the 4600 block of Bellflower Drive in the village of DeForest, the Police Department said. Officers found a man who was not breathing and did not have a pulse.
Construction workers had been trying to put a framed wall into place for the home when wind knocked it onto the worker, later identified by the medical examiner as Cervantes Vallin, who was helping put up the wall, police said.
Emergency crews began lifesaving measures and then took Cervantes Vallin to a local hospital. He died at the hospital, the medical examiner said.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is assisting the DeForest Police Department in investigating the death.
DeForest Windsor Fire and EMS Department and the Sun Prairie EMS Department assisted at the scene.
Photos: Remembering horrific van crash that killed 7 young people in 1999
Wisconsin State Patrol Sgt. Bradford Altman addresses a news conference March 25, 1999, about the early morning fatal accident near Janesville.
SARAH TEWS, STATE JOURNAL
Choan Lane waits as his signature bond is prepared following his initial appearance April 17, 2000, at the Rock County Courthouse in Janesville. Lane and his subscription sales company, YES, were charged in connection with a van crash that killed seven people.
CRAIG SCHREINER, STATE JOURNAL ARCHIVES
Jeremy Holmes, right, and public defender John Bergstrom appear March 26, 1999, in Rock County Circuit Court, where Holmes was facing 14 charges stemming from a fatal van crash. Holmes, 20, was charged with seven counts of negligent vehicular homicide and five counts of causing great bodily harm.
JOHN MANIACI, STATE JOURNAL ARCHIVES
Jeremy Holmes composes himself at the end of his sentencing hearing June 11, 1999, in Rock County Circuit Court, on charges related to a deadly van crash that killed seven young people. His attorney takes his hand to lead him from the courtroom. Holmes was sentenced to seven years in prison and four years of probation.
SARAH TEWS, STATE JOURNAL ARCHIVES
The Holmes family listens to testimony June 11, 1999, during the sentencing of their son and brother, Jeremy Holmes. His father, Danny Holmes, is at the far left; sister Jenny Holmes is in the center; and Jeremy’s mother, Shelly Martin, is second from the right.
SARAH TEWS, STATE JOURNAL ARCHIVES
Jaime McFaul, sister of crash victim Peter Christman, reacts as people speak in defense of driver Jeremy Holmes and ask that he receive leniency at a hearing June 11, 1999.
SARAH TEWS, STATE JOURNAL ARCHIVES
DeAnna Roberts, mother of crash victim Marshall Roberts, pauses in her statement to the court during the sentencing hearing June 11, 1999, for Jeremy Holmes.
SARAH TEWS, STATE JOURNAL ARCHIVES
Monica Forgues, 16, of Madison, was paralyzed after a van crash that killed seven people. She sits in court May 17, 2000, waiting for the start of the preliminary hearing for Choan Lane, one of the owners of the company involved with the crash.
STEVE APPS, STATE JOURNAL ARCHIVES
Choan Lane waits for his sentence to be handed down in Rock Couty Circuit Court in Janesville on Oct. 24, 2000.
JOHN MANIACI, STATE JOURNAL ARCHIVES
Deanna Roberts is comforted Oct. 24, 2000, by husband Albert in Rock County Circuit Court in Janesville, where Choan Lane, 32, was sentenced to three years and seven months on four charges stemming from a 1999 van crash that killed members of Lane’s magazine sales crew. Roberts lost her son, Marshall, who was 16, in the crash.
JOHN MANIACI, STATE JOURNAL ARCHIVES
Monica Forgues is wheeled to the witness stand past Choan Lane, right, and his attorney, Gerald Boyle, to offer testimony during Lane’s sentencing hearing Oct. 24, 2000, in Rock County Circuit Court in Janesville. While selling magazines for Lane, Forgues was paralyzed in a van crash that killed several of her co-workers.
JOHN MANIACI, STATE JOURNAL ARCHIVES
Choan Lane, 32, sheds a tear during his sentencing in Rock County Circuit Court in Janesville on Oct. 24, 2000. Lane was sentenced three years and seven months on four charges stemming from a van crash that killed members of his magazine sales crew.
JOHN MANIACI, STATE JOURNAL ARCHIVES
Nancy Ashton, left, and Bonita Lettman are relieved as Choan Lane received the maximum allowable sentence in Rock County Circuit Court in Janesville on Oct. 24, 2000, for a fatal crash that killed seven people. Ashton’s daughter, Monica Forgues, was paralyzed from the neck down in the crash.
JOHN MANIACI, STATE JOURNAL ARCHIVES
Phil Ellenbecker sits beside his living room shrine for his daughter, Malinda Turvey, on March 23, 2001, nearly two years after she was killed in Janesville when a van crashed while carrying the magazine sales crew she had joined in 1999.
JOHN MANIACI, STATE JOURNAL ARCHIVES
Monica Forgues, center, makes her way into the auditorium to receive her GED diploma on June 13, 2003, from Omega School, as her family and friends follow behind her. Walking behind Monica is her mother, Nancy Ashton. Monica was paralyzed four years earlier in a van crash in which seven people died.
MICHELLE STOCKER, THE CAPITAL TIMES ARCHIVES
Phil Ellenbecker of Verona holds a photo of his daughter, Malinda Turvey, after testifying March 8, 2004, at the state Capitol to push for increased regulation of businesses that employ traveling sales crews. Malinda, 15 years old in the photo, was killed in a 1999 crash while working on such a crew.
LEAH L. JONES, STATE JOURNAL ARCHIVES
Nancy Ashton, right, assists her daughter, Monica Forgues, during a news conference Oct. 20, 2004, announcing that a $1.85 million settlement had been reached in a van crash in 1999 that killed seven people and paralyzed Forgues.
JOSEPH W. JACKSON III, STATE JOURNAL ARCHIVES
Victim of a deadly van crash carrying a door-to-door magazine sales crew March 25, 1999, on Interstate 39-90 near Janesville.
Victim of a deadly van crash carrying a door-to-door magazine sales crew March 25, 1999, on Interstate 39-90 near Janesville.
Victim of a deadly van crash carrying a door-to-door magazine sales crew March 25, 1999, on Interstate 39-90 near Janesville.
Victim of a deadly van crash carrying a door-to-door magazine sales crew March 25, 1999, on Interstate 39-90 near Janesville.
Victim of a deadly van crash carrying a door-to-door magazine sales crew March 25, 1999, on Interstate 39-90 near Janesville.
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