McMinnville native killed in digging accident

FALLSTON, N.C. — A Fallston man known for his smile and laugh was killed in a Mooresville construction accident Friday, leaving behind a wife and 9-year-old twin sons.

James Lee Holland Fults and a co-worker with Metro Utilities of Charlotte were digging new water and sewer lines for a residential development when the walls of a 10-foot earthen trench collapsed, burying Fults.

The Tennessee native and his co-worker “Mitch” had temporarily stepped out of the trench box, a protected area within the trench, according to Bobby Compton, Fire Marshal of the Mooresville Fire Department.

The wall collapsed around 3 p.m.

Mitch survived and was flown to Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte.

“He was covered but able to free himself,’ said Compton.

Fults, 43, was married to Shelby native Barbara Dingler Fults, and had twin sons, Dylan and Daniel, 9. He also leaves behind another son, Travis Joe Davis of Moss, Tenn.

Fults was a native of McMinnville but moved to Shelby in 1984, where he met Barbara. The couple moved to Fallston four years ago. Fults mother, Jesse Frances Pease Turner, still lives in McMinnville.

Fults had worked in the construction industry for about six years, Barbara said.

He was a “very energetic person” who “always had a smile on his face,” according to Donnie Shelton, Fults’ friend of 20 years.

“He would give someone the shirt of his back if he didn’t even know them,” Shelton. “He was a great dad and an absolutely wonderful person. Everybody that he met, their response was, ‘What a wonderful person.'”

Fults was mechanically inclined and loved to shoot billiards, Shelton said.

“Anybody who met James always remembered him, and that’s the truth,” Shelton said. “James was the type of person who didn’t have to seek friends.”

The fatal accident gained statewide media attention and is being investigated by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Fults and his co-worker were digging behind a town house development along N.C. Highway 115 when yards of loose dirt that had been scooped out of the hillside by a large trackhoe fell on them, officials said.

“It wouldn’t have taken much for that to come down,” said Compton, pointing at the hillside.

Rescuers from several area departments rushed to the scene to help free Fults. A representative of the OSHA was at the scene investigating the accident.

Of the 169 workplace fatalities OSHA investigated in North Carolina in 2002, three involved workers who were killed while doing underground excavation work.

This story reprinted courtesy of The Shelby Star (Shelby, N.C.) and was written by Amy Kenna.