Worker killed at DIA lived in Pennsylvania

Aug. 8, 2007

The worker killed Monday at Denver International Airport is a 46-year-old Pennsylvania family man with a son serving in the Army in Iraq.

In a freak, predawn accident, Robert L. Genzler, 46, of Beaver Falls, Pa., was hit by a giant sweeping machine as workers scrubbed tire rubber from a DIA runway.

Genzler worked for Rampart Hydro Services, a Pennsylvania firm that uses trucks that blast high-pressure water as a way to strip rubber residue left by landing jetliners from runways.

Denver police said the DIA worker driving the sweeper lost sight of Genzler, apparently because the man had bent over to pick up an object on the runway, which was closed for cleaning, police said.

Genzler is survived by his wife and three children