MARCH 23, 2015
RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA
Three workers were killed Monday and another was injured
when scaffolding collapsed at a building under construction in Raleigh, North
Carolina.
The collapse happened late Monday morning at an 11-story
building where workers are finishing construction, said Christopher Riley,
spokesman for the city.
The workers were removing a scaffolding on an 11-story
building when the accident occurred, Atlanta-based Choate Construction's chief
operating officer Mike Hampton told CBS News affiliate WRAL. The equipment known as a mast climber scaffold
rises up and down to take workers to different floors.
People nearby described what sounded to them like an
explosion and then saw the scaffolding, which was operated by Associated
Scaffolding in Raleigh, collapsing and crashing into the side of the building.
Authorities were working to notify the families of the dead.
The injured person was in serious condition at a hospital, Riley said.
"We have no preliminary information on where exactly
they were or what exactly they were doing, we just know we lost three people in
the collapse itself," Wake County EMS District Chief Jeff Hammerstein told
reporters.
Hammerstein told NBC News that roads surrounding the
collapse were closed Monday afternoon but that the area was not considered
hazardous.
The structure is part of a $54 million project being built
by Choate Construction, according to NBC affiliate WNCN. "We are deeply
saddened by the loss of life and injuries suffered during this incident,"
the company said in a statement.
The North Carolina Labor Department will investigate, the
city said. Meanwhile, the workers are
dead. RIP.
A section of scaffolding protrudes from a shattered window
at the scene of a construction accident that killed three people and sent
another to a hospital, Monday, March 23, 2015, in Raleigh, N.C. A scaffolding
holding at least three workers fell and crashed into the Charter Square
project, an 11-story building being built on the south end of Fayetteville
Street.
Peter Thuston was working inside the building installing a
security card reader system when the accident happened.
He said he ran outside to try to help and saw three men in
safety harnesses, leading him to believe that they had been attached to the
scaffolding.
"It was just a loud crash and a huge cloud of
smoke," said Thuston, 32, of Garner. "I noticed three of the guys and
it looked like they were dead."
He said a fourth man wearing a safety harness was found on a
crushed portable toilet after apparently falling onto it. The man was still
breathing and had a pulse, but was barely responsive.
Thuston said he had walked inside minutes before the
accident.
"That could have been anybody. That could have been
me," he said.
The scaffolding that fell was attached to the side of the
new building. One of the tracks had snapped off several stories up and fallen into
a twisted heap on the ground below.
State Department of Labor spokesman Neal O'Briant said his
agency is investigating the cause. Officials had closed off a wide area around
the scene.
A group of men in hard hats and yellow vests, some of which
said Associated Scaffolding on them, were talking to an official near the edge
of the police line. People who answered multiple calls at the company's Durham
headquarters declined to comment.
Hampton said the subcontractor's only job at the site was
erecting and dismantling the scaffolding.
Occupational Safety and Health Administration records show
that Associated Scaffolding was issued serious safety violations twice in North
Carolina in the past 10 years. A 2007 citation says it was related to access
equipment for scaffold platforms, while a 2008 citation says the violation was
related to storage of welding materials.
The records show that Choate Construction has been inspected
20 times in North Carolina in the past 10 years and cited for one violation,
which wasn't considered serious. O'Briant said the 2014 violation was related
to storing flammable materials outside without a fire extinguisher.