Probe under way after city worker dies at water treatment plant

An investigation is in progress after a 19-year-old city employee died Sunday at the municipal water treatment plant off Leaston Road southwest of Rocky Mount, city officials said.

Trace Christman had been working on an electrical junction box when he received a shock and fell into the water at the pumping station, the officials said. Christman died at the scene, the officials said.

City Manager Keith Rogers Jr., in a prepared statement, called Christman a young employee who had a bright future and said that Christman’s death is both a tragic loss and deeply saddening.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the Christman family and the greater Rocky Mount community,” Rogers said in the statement.

Rocky Mount emergency personnel responded around 6:15 p.m., the city officials said.

According to audio of radio traffic provided by Nash County Emergency Services, the dispatcher had alerted units that a person had been electrocuted at the plant.

The plant is between West Mount Drive and the Tar River Reservoir.