1 Dies, 2 Injured After Fall From Construction Site
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UPDATE: A Columbus construction worker fell to his death Wednesday at a construction site after a scaffolding collapsed, injuring two co-workers as well.
Published: July 1, 2009
Updated: July 2, 2009
DUBLIN, Ohio—A Columbus construction worker fell to his death Wednesday at a Dublin construction site after a scaffolding collapsed, injuring two co-workers as well.
NBC 4’s Patrick Preston reported from the scene Wednesday.
Crews were called to a construction site at 6100 Emerald Pkwy. Dublin at about 11:20 a.m.
The masonry workers were laying brick on the outside of the structure when the accident happened.
Dublin police reported the men were working on the future IGS Energy headquarters when the scaffolding they were standing on gave way.
The three workers fell different distances from the scaffolding: one fell to the ground, a second worker fell two stories and a third worker fell one story, according to Dublin Public Information Officer Mike Racey.
Wilbert Johnson, 52, of Columbus died after he fell an unknown distance.
Racey said details of Johnson’s death were not available.
Racey told NBC 4 that it appeared to be an accident, but police conducted numerous interviews as part of the investigation.
Racey said Brock Oldaker, 43, of Columbus, was treated and released from an area hospital. Gary Rathburn, 49, of Galloway, is in the hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
IGS Energy referred all inquiries to Messer Construction, the company overseeing the construction project.
Messer spokesperson Jim Kapp told NBC 4 he could not offer any information about the workers or the accident when contacted early this afternoon.
“Our thoughts are with the workers injured today and their families,” Kapp said.
The three workers involved in Wednesday’s construction accident in Dublin worked for International Masonry based in Columbus. Messer Construction hired International Masonry as a subcontractor.
International Masonry has been cited for 14 violations and fined $17,032 by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) over the past 10 years, including two violations and an $8,000 fine for a fatal accident at a school construction site in 2002.
RELATED: International Masonry’s Record Of Violations
According to an April 8, 2002 OSHA report on International Masonry:
“On April 5, 2002, Employee #1, a mason, was working on a construction site for a school. Employee #1 let himself down through the walk planks on the outrigger and was attempting to climb down one level on the scaffold to egress. The ladder being used for access/egress to the scaffold was on the third level. While climbing down on the end rail, Employee #1 lost his footing and fell 26 ft between the scaffold and the wall being constructed. The access ladder on the third level was a 32-ft extension ladder which was not long enough to reach the fourth level of the scaffold where the block was being laid. All the members of the crew stated that they got down from the scaffold the same way as Employee #1 was attempting to when he fell. Employee #1 sustained a fractured neck and head injury and was pronounced dead at the hospital.“
RELATED: April 2002 Fatal Accident Report
Calls to International Masonry were not returned Wednesday afternoon.
Work on the project has been stopped as an accident investigation continues.
It remained unclear when work at the site would resume.
CLARIFICATION
Earlier, NBC 4 reported Messer Construction was cited for four OSHA violations in 2006. Since then, Messer Construction spokesperson Jim Kapp informed NBC 4 that the Messer Construction cited for four safety violations in 2006 is not the Columbus-based commercial construction company Messer that is managing the construction of the IGS Energy Building in Dublin.
NBC 4 called an OSHA manager who examined the 2006 file and confirmed the Messer Construction cited in 2006 is not related to Columbus-based Messer Construction.
A Messer spokesperson told NBC 4 the company has an outstanding safety record and received the Associated General Contractors (AGC) of America’s 2009 Construction Safety Excellence Award.
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Reader Reactions
Has anyone thought to check, the man that died in 2002 was the father of 1 of the men that fell this time.
If they were union then maybe a little more care would be paid to worker safety.
stranded, you wrote:
“I am not usually a stickler when it comes to the reporters grammar, or lack thereof. HOWEVER… did this guy EVEN READ his own headline? Really? Did he? 1 Dies? Are you serious?????
And was this headline approved by your editor? Was it? Please tell me it wasn’t…“
I did not write the above headline.
The headline I submitted for print was:
One Worker Dead, Two Injured in Dublin Construction Accident
-followed by an updated headline:
Masonry Company in Fatal Dublin Construction Accident has Numerous Safety Violations
Keep in mind though, our web editors are limited on space in writing headlines.
Thanks,
Patrick Preston
Ok seriously, I don’t care how many simple “violations” they have or have not had! Two men have came to a severe death from this company! I do believe we each have our day to leave this Earth, but the events that led to theirs is horrible. The company needs to enforce and re-evaluate it’s practices. And Ohio is NOT an OSHA state, but we use their guidelines. As far as union goes, who cares, everyone has their own thoughts, lets keep to focus on attempting to make this company change yet another death from happening and yes ONE voice can change a lot!
nicolem, you wrote:
“Ok so N B C needs to straighten up this article and their facts. Messer Construction and IMI are 2 completely different company. Messer hired IMI to do the brick/block work of this building. IMI is not the compoany with all the violations. IMI has had violations, I believe 8 in or so in the past 10 years not 14!!! That would be Messer. I know first hand, I have a family member that works at IMI, in fact he was on this particualr jobsite. It is a sad unfornuate story and Wilbert was a great man! RIP. But nbc needs to have their facts straight before posting cause every false fact can negativly impact IMI and that isn’t fair. I’m not sticking up for IMI, obviously something went wrong and that is why this tradegy happen, but IMI has enough to worry about without NBC posting falsified violations and stuff.
RIP WILBERT JOHNSON!“
The above story noted that International Masonry and Messer are not the same company, “The three workers involved in Wednesday’s construction accident in Dublin worked for International Masonry based in Columbus. Messer Construction hired International Masonry as a subcontractor.“
In addition, if you visit the following link on the OSHA website you will find that International Masonry has been cited for 14 violations, as we correctly reported.
http://www.osha.gov/pls/imis/establishment.search?p_logger=1&establishment;=“INTERNATIONAL+MASONRY”&State=All&officetype=All&Office=All&p_case=closed&endmonth=07&endday=01&endyear=1976&startmonth=07&startday=01&startyear=2009
I appreciate your interest in accuracy and wanted to assure you and others that we did not falsify violations, as you stated. If you have information indicating the OSHA report is incorrect, I would like to know about it.
nicolem, can you tell us the source where you learned IMI has had only 8 violations? I would appreciate knowing.
Thanks,
Patrick Preston
Oh, okay. I am familiar with the union when it comes to electrical contracting, and believe you me I reccomend any and everyone to steer clear of becomming union.
Thank you BlakeA for answering my curiousity. I too stopped and asked them what they were protesting and couldn’t get a straight answer.
nicolem: You were correct. Although, the broadcast version contained information about Messer’s violations, it mistakenly was omitted in the online version. NBC 4 apologizes for this mistake and has corrected it. Thank you for the correction.
Maumi,
It is because Messer is a non-union contractor, and as such don’t care whether or not the subcontractors it hires are union or non-union, they just have to have the competitive bid. The labor union is protesting that non-union companies are getting work even though they are the lowest and best bidder, only because they aren’t union. The funniest part is it’s normally not even the union workers who are protesting….as they are to busy actually working. The unions are ‘hiring’ people to stand out there, sometimes even homeless. While I was still employed by Messer I even stopped and had a conversation with one of the protesters, he didn’t even care 1 bit about any of the topics he was hired to protest, he was just getting something out of it. It’s all very comical when you know the story.
Does anyone know why there have been people downtown holding up “Messer” signs? They have been doing it for a while now. I think the say something along the lines of Messer doing them wrong.
I used to work for Messer before I left for local government, and I can say they are an extremely safe company. They won their national safety award in April for good reason. They even give all employees a couple hundred dollar check every quarter if people are being safe and not causing or allowing accidents to happen. They don’t let anything go down on their sites, and normally volunteer to have OSHA walk their sites a few times through a project just to ensure the work environment is safe for it’s workers. It’s a shame that IMI had this accident, and I feel great sorrow for the family of Mr. Johnson and will keep them in my prayers. But everyone needs to keep in mind who built, who uses, and who is supposed to have certified scaffold erectors putting up that scaffold…IMI. Yes, Messer looks them over too, but it really is IMI’s equipment, and IMI’s responsibility to provide safe equipment for it’s employees.
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