A Raleigh scaffolding collapse killed three construction workers and seriously injured another Monday after the exterior lift system tumbled 11 stories down to the ground.
Mike Hampton — who heads Atlanta-based Choate Construction, the project's general contractor —
told WRAL-TV that the workers were removing and lowering a mast climber on the Charter Square building when the incident occurred just before 11 a.m.
The victims were identifies as Jose Erasmo Hernandez, 41, of Durham; Jose Luis Lopez-Ramirez, 33, of Clinton; and Anderson Almeida, 33, of Durham. Another worker, 53-year-old Elmer Guevara, was treated for serious injuries at WakeMed.
"Definitely, he was my big brother, my best friend," Anderson Almeida's brother Wes told WRAL-TV. "There was never a moment in my life, no matter how bad things were, that he didn't make me smile. His son Ryan, three years old, was the biggest happiness of his life. He was the best brother anybody could've asked for, with the biggest heart of anyone I've ever met."
Associated Scaffolding, a Choate Construction subcontractor on the Charter Square building project, had six violations from 2007 to 2008, including two serious violations filed with
Occupational Safety and Health Administration, according to ABC11.com.
Hampton told the local station that Associated Scaffolding passed rigorous financial and safety pre-qualifications for the job before he signed them on as a subcontractor.
OSHA investigators were on the scene Monday to begin looking into what happened, a North Carolina Department of Labor spokesperson told WRAL-TV.
Raleigh Mayor Nancy McFarlane issued a statement on the accident Monday.
"I was incredibly saddened to learn of the construction accident that occurred this morning at the Charter Square construction site," the statement said. "I would like to offer our sincere condolences to the families and friends of the workers who tragically lost their lives. Please keep the workers and their families in your thoughts and prayers during this very difficult time."
Kevin O'Shea, chair of the Mast Climbing Council of the Scaffold and
Access Industry Association Construction, told The News & Observer that companies have used mast climbers since the early 1980s. O'Shea added that the devices are typically used for work on external walls, and crews might use them as platforms to install windows.
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