LIVINGSTON COUNTY, Mich. – Ryan Starnes, a 23-year-old road crew worker and devoted father, died Monday in a construction accident in Brighton Township, leaving behind a fiancée and a 5-year-old son with special needs.
A preliminary investigation revealed that the excavator operator was unaware that Starnes was working in the hole at the time of the accident.
“Ryan had the most charismatic smile that you could have. He walked into a room, and he wanted everybody to be happy and to be okay,” said Katrina Skoczylas, Starnes’ mother.
Skoczylas said Starnes’ world revolved around his son Luke, who is non-verbal and autistic.
Despite working long hours at his job as an underground utility worker, Starnes’ family said he always made time for those he cared about.
“Despite Ryan working 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 hours a day sometimes, even the friends that he grew up with, I have friends messaging me saying me and Ryan were supposed to go out to lunch next week,” said Michael Starnes, Ryan’s brother.
Starnes worked alongside his grandfather, who was at the jobsite when the accident happened.
“His grandpa was his foreman, and his grandpa held him while he left this earth,” Skoczylas said. “As a parent, it makes me feel better that he was with someone that loved him.”
Outside the family’s home now stands a memorial—a hard hat and vest put up by Starnes’ union colleagues, serving as a tribute to his life and dedication to his work.
The family started a fundraiser to help pay for funeral expenses and support his son’s ongoing care. The GoFundMe has already raised more than $21,000 toward their $25,000 goal.
“We appreciate more than words can express the help that’s been donated, the outpouring of reaching out, people that don’t know us,” Skoczylas said. “It means everything to our family, because it means everything to his son, and that is what Ryan would want.”