Excavator mishap halts development

LYNN – A Forest Street development will be put on hold by city inspectors after an excavator tipped over at the site Friday.Karen Odgers was watching from her apartment at 26 Forest St. as the driver began to drive the excavator up a slope at the development site across the street, a lot slated for a single-family home. “It got to the top and turned around, and I stepped away from the window. The next thing I knew it looked like that,” said Odgers from the sidewalk, pointing toward the excavator tipped onto its nose.Firefighters responded to the site around 3 p.m. and were joined by Lynn Police and Inspectional Services.?They were excavating the land and got stuck in a bad spot and it tipped over onto the nose,” said Lynn Fire Deputy Chief Jack Barry.Barry reported that at the time of the incident, the only two people on the site were the lot owner and contractor from A&S Construction of Reading. Barry said there was a police detail on site that had finished for the day and therefore the contractor was “supposed to have ceased operations.”According to Barry, the building permit was revoked by Building Inspector Andy Young, and will remain so until Lynn inspectors and the Massachusetts Department of Public Safety can conclude their investigation of the incident.Barry said no one was hurt in the incident, and the driver righted the excavator before the leasing company arrived to take it away.Odgers said the contractor often does work at the site without a police detail. “This is what happens when you don?t know what you?re doing,” she said. “He?s lucky he didn?t get killed.”