3 dead after 21 Rio construction fall in West Campus

[Samwill89]

http://www.kvue.com/news/local/stori....699b6de7.html

According to officials with Austin/Travis County EMS, the victims were at the construction site for the 21 Rio Apartments on Rio Grande near MLK when the accident happened. Officials say the scaffolding was set up to reach the 11th floor when it gave way and dropped several stories.

Makeshift construction scaffolding gave way at a work site near the University of Texas campus Wednesday afternoon, killing three people. A fourth victim sustained minor injuries.

Two people -- 30-years-old and 28-years-old -- fell 11 stories to their deaths. A third person, 40, fell to the 7th floor and was rushed to Brackenridge Hospital in critical condition. He later died from his injuries. A fourth victim managed to jump into the building that was under construction as the elevator fell and sustained minor injuries. That person was walking around.

Battalion Fire Chief Harry Evans says an investigation into what happened is underway.

No identities have been released.

The building is a 16-story planned high rise. The developer of the residential tower is Cobalt Land Development.

OSHA is expected to investigate.

[hookem]

RIP and my prayers to the families. It's sobering to remember that our hobby and passion of watching these highrises go up is in reality a very serious business, with real risk involved. I hope that this accident will yield some safety improvements for those who work in this type of construction.

[KevinFromTexas]

Unfortunate.

[MichaelB]

Originally Posted by hookem

RIP and my prayers to the families. It's sobering to remember that our hobby and passion of watching these highrises go up is in reality a very serious business, with real risk involved. I hope that this accident will yield some safety improvements for those who work in this type of construction.

Agreed.

[Major AWACS]

A fourth victim managed to jump into the building that was under construction as the elevator fell and sustained minor injuries. That person was walking around.

RIP to those involved but to digress a moment, the above sounds very "movie" like. Wow.

Ciao,
FH

[priller]

A construction worker dies in Texas every 2 1/2 days. No other state in the country has as many construction-related deaths: 142 fatalities were reported in 2007, up from 131 the year Puerto died, according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s most recent statistics. The causes are far from mysterious: lax enforcement of labor and safety regulations, too many overtime hours without rest breaks and a lack of safety training and equipment.

In Puerto’s case, safety training—as mandated by law—and a fiberglass ladder would likely have prevented his death. The only restitution made by Gutter Tech, the Austin company that hired Puerto, was $5,000 to have his body shipped back to his parents in Yoro. Since Gutter Tech had no worker’s compensation insurance—Texas is the only state where that’s optional—Puerto’s family was stuck with $8,000 in hospital bills for the autopsy and ambulance ride.

Gutter Tech, which did not respond to interview requests for this story, was fined $4,950 by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

Much more here: http://www.texasobserver.org/features/dying_to_build

[KevinFromTexas]

http://www.statesman.com/blogs/conte...1_rio_apa.html

Police: Scaffolds at 21 Rio apartments were assembled incorrectly

By Patrick George | Monday, July 13, 2009, 04:24 PM

Austin police have issued a search warrant for a West Campus apartment building where three construction workers fell to their deaths in June, saying scaffolding equipment used there was negligently assembled and may have caused the workers’ deaths.

Wilson Joel Irias Cerritos, Raudel Ramirez Camacho and Jesus Angel Lopez Perez were killed June 10 after falling from the upper stories of the 21 Rio apartment development at 2101 Rio Grande Street. The accident has been under investigation by Austin police and the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

A search warrant dated July 10 resulted in the seizure of parts from a mast climber, a platform scaffold device the workers used to scale the outer wall of the building. An examination of the parts used in the mast climber alleges that employees “negligently erected the unit and used parts and materials which are substandard and/or graded below the weight limit needed to support this type of work and loading,” the warrant said.

Such actions may constitute criminally negligent homicide, a state jail felony, the warrant said.