Jim Wells County worker airlifted after equipment accident in Alice

A 24-year-old Jim Wells County Precinct 1 employee was airlifted to a Corpus Christi hospital after his leg was caught in equipment during a Tuesday morning accident in Alice. Precinct 1 Commissioner George Aguilar said the equipment was accidentally turned on.

The worker was trapped in an auger at a work site near FM 625 and County Road 142 and suffered a severe leg injury believed to include a fracture. The accident happened in a part of the county where Precinct 1 crews regularly handle field work, making the machinery involved and the start-up sequence central to how the injury unfolded.

Emergency crews responded and rescued the man from the equipment. He was stabilized in a trench, then lifted out with a Stokes basket and an aerial ladder before being flown to Corpus Christi for treatment.

For Jim Wells County, the injury puts a sharp focus on how county workers are protected around powered equipment and trench sites. Aguilar's account points to a sudden equipment start-up as the immediate hazard, the kind of moment that can turn routine road or drainage work into a rescue operation in seconds.

The incident also leaves Precinct 1 with immediate practical questions about field operations while the worker recovers. County supervisors will have to sort through what happened at the job site, whether equipment handling procedures need tightening, and how to keep crews safe when they are working around heavy machinery in Alice and across the precinct.