A Winston-Salem, North Carolina construction worker died last week in a boom lift accident, according to the Winston Salem Journal. The paper reported that the 65 year-old man was found unconscious and unresponsive on elevated train tracks running through the job site. According to police, the worker’s cherry picker was nearby. It appeared that he fell from it to his death.
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The construction worker was doing work inside the Wake Forest Innovation Quarter for the company Whiting-Turner Corp. Crews are working on a new building called Plant 60 in preparation for making that building part of the new Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center medical school.
The North Carolina Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Division is investigating the accident.
The deceased construction worker was a subcontractor for Bonitz Contracting Company, which has an open safety investigation pending with OSHA. Inspectors from that organization found two violations recently involving improper scaffolding training.
Our construction accident personal injury legal team knows how dangerous it can be to work in an industrial or construction setting. About 4405 workers died on the job in 2013, which is 12 deaths per day. OSHA has reported that of 3929 worker deaths in private companies that year, 20.3% were in construction. And falls were 37% of that total.
It is important for construction companies to pay close attention to worker safety. They also need to have rapid response time when accidents do occur. Further, they also need to promote a team-oriented mindset where all on the work site are focused on worker safety.