Saturday, August 22, 2015

1 construction worker killed, 1 injured when a backhoe operated by Taylor's Demolition and Recycling Inc. knocked down a 15-foot wall in Tuscon, Arizona

 The Job Center building prior to its demolition


 The Job Center building prior to its demolition




 
Ron Medvescek / Arizona Daily Star

Building collapse near Grant and 6th Ave injured two people.
 Arizona Daily Star


One worker was killed and a second suffered critical injuries when a wall of a building being demolished for a city road-widening project collapsed on them Friday afternoon.

The incident happened shortly before 2 p.m. at a construction site at East Grant Road and North Sixth Avenue.

Police said a brick and cinder-block building was being demolished by a work crew that was using a back hoe. Two workers were standing near a 15-foot wall when it collapsed, said police Capt. Fabian Pacheco.

Tucson Fire crews arrived and pulled the workers from the rubble. One worker, 54, was pronounced dead at the scene. The second worker, 33, was taken by ambulance to Banner-University Medical Center Tucson with life-threatening injuries.


Pacheco said the city hired Taylor's Demolition and Recycling Inc. to demolish the structure as part of the Grant Road widening project. The owner of the company was operating the back hoe when the wall collapsed, Pacheco said.

OSHA and the city's risk management and building services departments were at the scene investigating.