LYNNWOOD — When Josh McMahon got a job at the Pull A Part auto wrecking yard in Lynnwood, he believed the work was another step toward a brighter future.
McMahon started the job on June 25, his 16th birthday. He was so proud of how he had cleaned up the wrecking yard he made his girlfriend stop and peer through the fence to see the tidy rows of wrecked cars.
McMahon, who had been clean from drugs and alcohol for seven months after battling addiction for years, planned to take classes in the fall to become a mechanic. Someday, he wanted to open his own hot-rod shop and buy a 1979 Pontiac Trans Am.
But the teenager’s first job would be his last. McMahon died Aug. 13 at Pull A Part after a 9-foot-tall steel gantry crane fell on him.
According to a state Department of Labor and Industries investigator, McMahon wasn’t using the steel crane that fell on him.
McMahon, of Lynnwood, was apparently walking away from the crane when a customer started to move it over uneven gravel and dirt, L&I compliance officer Eric Wiseman said. The 9-foot-tall steel gantry crane fell on top of McMahon, killing him.
“The ground was uneven and the thing toppled. Josh was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Wiseman said.
A witness said McMahon had stopped to chat with the customer before the accident, Wiseman said.
The customer had used the crane to lift a Ford V8 engine and transmission, weighing 800 to 1,000 pounds. The crane, which looks like an upside-down U, was suspending the engine and transmission when it fell over, Wiseman said.
McMahon died of a blunt impact to his head, according to the Snohomish County Medical Examiner’s Office.
L&I, federal officials and police are investigating the accident, he said.
Employees at the business, owned by Ferrill’s Auto Parts, are cooperating with investigators. They declined to discuss the accident with a reporter Aug. 14 but said in a written statement that the company is “deeply saddened by the loss of our employee, and he will be truly missed.”
The wrecking yard has been fined several times in the past for violating federal safety and health regulations, according to Occupational Safety and Health Administration records.
L&I spokeswoman Elaine Fischer said state records show that since 1997, 20 violations have been issued to the company, which has auto wrecking yards in Lynnwood, Everett and Pierce County.
Nine of those violations are considered serious, she said, such as one issued in May 2000 for the structural integrity of the vehicle racks employees were working underneath. The other 11 were for general violations such as not having a proper first-aid kit.
McMahon’s family and friends gathered outside the wrecking yard Aug. 14, bringing flowers, balloons, photos of the teen and his beloved toy cars.
“The job was perfect, because that’s what he loved,” said his mother, Connie McMahon of Lynnwood.
Josh McMahon, who’d had several scrapes with the law, got the job through the Snohomish County Juvenile Drug Court, his mother said. With the support of the court and twice-weekly outpatient drug treatment, he had beaten his addiction to marijuana and alcohol, she said.
McMahon, who lived at his mother’s Lynnwood apartment and at the home of his father and stepmother, spent several months in a drug treatment center this spring.
Ryan Wagnon, 16, his roommate during treatment, said McMahon was determined to change his life.
“There would be people who would want to leave (treatment), and he’d talk them into staying,” Wagnon said. “He wanted to get clean, and he did.”
Josh McMahon also took the bus every week to attend the youth group at Eastside Christian Center in Bellevue, Pastor James Carnaghi said.
McMahon became a leader in the group, someone other teens would listen to.
“He was real vocal about the fact he’d made some bad choices, but he made the choice to turn his life around,” said Carnaghi, adding that McMahon and his brother, Marcus Jr., 20, were baptized last month.
Josh McMahon was also looking forward to the birth of a new sister, said his stepmother, Shari McMahon, who is due later this month.
“He was so excited,” his father said. “He was really focused on his future.”
Josh McMahon’s girlfriend, Lacey Rask, 14, said that he was about to buy his brother’s Honda Accord, but couldn’t help looking longingly at every Trans Am and Chevrolet Camaro that passed.
“I think he has his car now,” she said, “and he’s working in his shop.”
Katherine Schiffner is a reporter for the Herald in Everett.
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