NORR Engineering The 2012 accident sent debris crashing through two floors of the shopping center, killing two and injuring numerous others. Related Links: Elliot Lake Inquiry website/PDF of Norr Ltd. forensic engineering report of Algo Centre Mall collapse In the northern provincial town of Elliott Lake on May 15, the former head of a now defunct Ontario engineering firm will appear in court to face charges related to the June 2012 collapse of a local mall's rooftop parking structure that resulted in two deaths and other injuries.Ontario's Ministry of Labor announced on April 22 that it had charged Robert Wood—a
Related Links: Demo Crew Member Killed at Gatlinburg, Tenn., Plant Where Two Workers Died Last Year Tennessee Contractor Fined $7,150 for Bridge Fatality Two workers were killed and a third injured when a 25-foot wall collapsed at a Goodwill Industries building under construction in Hendersonville, Tenn.The April 18 incident killed Joel Pineda Muniz, 24, of Nashville and Jose P. Velasco-Sanagustin, 37, of Bethpage, Tenn. The third man, Jeff Costello, 44, of Scottsville, Ky., was taken to Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville and was released the next day.Costello and Velasco-Sanagustin were employed by Thorne’s Excavating Co. of Lebanon, Tenn., and
Photo by Andrea Burdett for ENR; inset by Bryan Caniff Birmingham, Ala. attorney says free-standing flight monitor structure, on which temporary wall support (circle inset) was added, isn't subject to building code enforcement; structures now have been taken down in the airport. Related Links: Father Grieves Son Killed by Sign Collapse (CNN) Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport Modernization Project Airport and city officials in Birmingham, Ala., are providing few details on what caused a 300-lb free-standing flight information display to topple onto a visiting family from Kansas City, leaving a 10-year-old dead and his mother and siblings seriously injured.Participants confirm a probe
Related Links: Senior Moments: Are Older Workers at Greater Risk of Injury? Fred Dryden operates an excavator for the heavy division of Barletta Cos.' reconstruction of the 97-year-old Larz Anderson Bridge near Harvard Square in Cambridge, Mass. At 60, there is a good chance he's older than some of Boston's infrastructure. As an operating engineer, he has managed to avoid many of the physical hazards to which other construction crafts are prone and plans to stay on the job until age 65."I like my work because I'm always doing something different," he says with a smile. "I've got wheels, so
Related Links: Dayton Daily News Story on Sturgill's Heat Stroke Citations A Dayton, Ohio-based roofing contractor is contesting U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration citations after a 60-year-old worker died last August from complications caused by heat stroke on an 82-degree F day.The temporary employee of A.H. Sturgill Roofing Inc. had been working in direct sunlight on a commercial flat roof in Miamisburg, throwing rubber roofing material into a dump truck on the ground, according to OSHA. The employee, who was not named, had to be hospitalized Aug. 1 and died 21 days later.The two serious violations are for failing
Related Links: Why NYC is Outsourcing Crane Exams 2012 Updated Requirements for New York City Crane Operators N ew York City building officials imposed $64,000 fines against a crane operator and a contractor for failing to inspect and improperly operating a mobile crane that collapsed in the borough of Queens. The accident injured seven workers on an apartment-building jobsite on Jan. 9."The operator was attempting to lift a load of more than double the weight capacity for this particular crane," said Robert LiMandri, the buildings commissioner, in a statement.At the project site on Jan. 9, Paul Geer, the crane operator,
Related Links: ENR: Jobsite Safety ENR: No Compromising on Safety Savvy contractors have significantly cut jobsite injuries in the past few decades by transforming safety practices into a science. Recent innovations include using more statistics as well as the latest technology. Some firms are taking a cue from psychology and employing behavior-modification techniques.Companies use statistical data from outside resources such as OSHA and the Construction Industry Institute (CII) at the University of Texas at Austin, but many also compile their own. They track recordable injuries, medical treatments, near misses and lost-time cases using tools such as job-safety analysis. Then they
Photo by Peter Reina Damaged tower crane dangling after crash. Photo by Peter Reina Related Links: Helicopter Strikes Tower Crane at London High-Rise Project Agusta 109 Helicopter Accident specialists with the U.K. government have launched investigations into the early morning Jan. 16 helicopter crash into a crane attached to a 180-meter-tall residential building under construction in central London. Both the helicopter pilot and a man in the street were killed. Six days after the accident, the building contractor started removing the damaged crane and ordered a replacement to complete the Tower, One St George Wharf project later this year.The twin-engine
Peter Reina for ENR The luffing jib of the tower dangled precariously atop the London skyscraper after being hit by a helicopter. Related Links: YOUTUBE Eyewitness account (video, audio) A helicopter flying in fog and clouds struck a tower crane at a London high-rise project early this morning.Two people in the helicopter died after it had crossed a busy highway and crashed in a nearby street, according to news reports.At about 8 a.m on Jan. 16, the helicopter struck the luffing jib of a tower attached to the new skyscraper rising at 1 St. George Wharf, in the Vauxhall section
Related Links: Demo Crew Member Killed at Gatlinburg, Tenn., Plant Where Two Workers Died Last Year New Tank for Tennessee Treatment Plant Where Three Died Failures of a North Carolina company to protect employees from loose soil and rock and inspect for possible hazards on a demolition worksite ended up in a $7,200 fine imposed by the Tennessee Division of Occupational Safety and Health.Roberson Construction & Land Development, Enka, N.C., was cited for three “serious” violations after Michael Eugene Wells was killed on Feb. 23, 2012, when an earthen wall collapsed during demolition of the Gatlinburg Wastewater Treatment Plant’s equalization