Perini Construction Nov. 27 jobsite fatality at the Cosmopolitan Resort & Casino in Las Vegas was the project's first construction-related death, but the fifth fatality since February for contractor Perini.

Perini Construction's luck on the Las Vegas Strip has seemingly run dry. On Nov. 27, the firm suffered its fifth construction jobsite fatality this year. David Rabun, 30, plummeted 50 feet to his death Tuesday at Perini's $3-billion, 2,998-room Cosmopolitan Resort & Casino project on Las Vegas Boulevard at Harmon Avenue. The twin 600-ft-tall condo-hotel tower development abuts another Perini project – the $7.4-billion, 18.67-million-sq-ft CityCenter, scene of four project-related deaths this year.

Rabun, a member of the Ironworkers Local 433, was attaching a beam to an upper floor at the Cosmopolitan site. Around 9:00 a.m., a beam to which he was harnessed fell to the ground, taking him with it, said Scott Allison, spokesman for the Clark County Fire Dept. Rabun was rushed to University Medical Center, but died later that afternoon of massive head trauma. Nevada's Occupational Safety and Health Administration is now investigating the incident.

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The 6.9-million-sq-ft Cosmopolitan Resort & Casino is scheduled to finish in late 2009. The developer is 3700 Associates LLC – an investment entity led by New York City-based developer Ian Bruce Eichner. Rabun's death is the project's first, but Perini Building Co.'s fifth since February.