Investigators are looking into a fatal crane accident at the APS plant near Buckeye

ARLINGTON, AZ (AZFamily)— State investigators are trying to determine what caused a fatal crane accident at a West Valley power plant.

On November 7, 50-year-old Mike Olver was killed at APS Redhawk power plant near Buckeye.

His family is demanding answers, saying they still don’t have a clear picture of what happened.

Olver’s family described him as a devoted husband and father of four. His wife Jenny said the last time she spoke to him was by phone on Thursday.

“Yeah, just a normal ‘Hello, honey,'” she said. “He probably had a minute to call; maybe there was a little downtime.”

She never thought it would be the last time.

“We just had a good chat and we ended with ‘I love you, bye,'” Jenny said.

Just hours after hanging up, she learned that Olver had been involved in an accident at work and had died.

“I was just screaming, ‘No, no, no.’ You know? You’re just in disbelief,” she described.

Olver’s daughters also have difficulty coming to terms with his death.

“It just feels like there’s a hole that nothing can really fill right now,” said one of his daughters, Falon. “I just feel like I’m missing an important role in my life. He was very much someone that I tried to emulate a lot, so it was very hard to know that I’m never going to get that again.”

It’s been over a week and the family says they still don’t have the answers they’re looking for.

“It’s the speculation, like now, that there was a crane involved. Did he suffer? Was it immediate?” asked Brianna Olver, another of Olver’s daughters.

He worked at Bay-Valve in California and got a 10-day job replacing valves at the APS power plant in Arlington, Arizona.

“To be so experienced in your industry, safety is number one,” Jenny said. “He understood the security protocol. He didn’t cut corners.”

The Arizona Division of Occupational Safety and Health, or ADOSH, investigates possible violations of federal standards and Arizona statutes.

“With the nature of investigations and deaths, no one can reveal exactly how or why. Was someone at fault? What was the safety protocol? No one can say any of that right now, which is upsetting,” Brianna said.

We know that medics from the Arizona Fire and Medical Authority responded to the scene, but they did not give us any information about the incident.

APS tells us an investigation is ongoing and shared a statement that said in part, “We are deeply saddened by the death of a contractor at the Redhawk Power Plant last week. There was no impact on other individuals at the plant, the public, or plant operations due to incident… The safety of our crews and customers will always be a top priority for APS.”

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