Death Draws OSHA Inquiry

REPORT: The Vue Construction Site Had Fire Code Problems

Work continues Monday at the site of The Vue, a luxury apartment complex south of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in Fayetteville, a day after a worker was electrocuted.

Work continues Monday at the site of The Vue, a luxury apartment complex south of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in Fayetteville, a day after a worker was electrocuted.

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration opened an investigation Monday into the death of a Joplin, Mo., man. It is the agency’s second investigation into a death at the same construction site in five weeks in Fayetteville.

Jess Wilson, 44, died Sunday after being shocked by overhead power lines while installing siding at The Vue apartment complex, 1100 S. Stadium Drive. General contractor on the 180-unit project is Parkcrest Builders Ltd. of 800 Gessner Road, Suite 350, Houston, Texas. The project is owned by University Student Living of Marlton, N.J.

Occupational Health and Safety Administration had an open investigation at the site in the death of Brannon Rhine, 20, of Springdale. Rhine jumped into a dirt hole on May 5, also a Sunday, after construction crews hit a sewer line. The walls of the hole collapsed.

By The Numbers

Hazards at Work Sites

Out of 4,188 worker fatalities in private industry in 2011, 738 or 17.6 percent were in construction. Four types of accidents were responsible for more than half those deaths. Eliminating the “Fatal Four,” as federal safety experts have dubbed them, would save more than 400 lives a year:

Falls – 259 (35 percent)

Electrocutions – 69 (9 percent)

Struck by Object – 73 (10 percent)

Caught in-between – 18 (2 percent)

Source: U.S. Occupational Safety And Health Administration.

The work site is south of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard across from Fayetteville High School. Spokeswoman Diana Petterson of the regional OSHA office confirmed Monday the investigation of Rhine’s death is still in progress and the investigation of Wilson’s death is under way.

OSHA records show no history of violations by Parkcrest, which has been in the construction business in Texas since Jan. 1, 1992, according to the company’s website. Petterson confirmed in a statement that “OSHA does not have a previous inspection history with this employer.”

There is no listing for the Jess Wilson family in Joplin phone records and no obituary had been received Monday, said a reporter from the Joplin Globe.

Wilson’s death is tragic and we have a team there now to determine why safety protocols were not followed, said Dale McCullough, spokeswoman for University Student Living. “It’s heartbreaking for everyone, especially his family,” she said.

McCullough said “basically everyone” from USL’s management team was in Fayetteville on Monday. Parkcrest president Jay Stewart also went to Fayetteville on Monday to learn details, a spokesman for his office said. Stewart would release a statement after he learned those details, the spokesman said.

Wilson and co-worker Patrick Skaggs, also of Joplin, were suspended about 25 feet in the air in a boom lift, according to a Police Department news release. A boom lift is a movable platform with an adjustable, extending arm. The lift took them “too close to overhead power lines and Wilson’s head touched one of the lines,” according to the release. The shock rendered Wilson unconscious and also disabled the lift, leaving Skaggs stranded with him. Firefighters rescued the two and Wilson died later from the injuries, according to the news release.

Last month, Rhine was trying to clear debris when the dirt pit collapsed on top of him, police said. Emergency crews found Rhine unresponsive, police said.

In another safety issue, The Vue work site was shut down in April for violations of city fire code, Fire Marshal Harley Hunt confirmed Monday. The violations concerned the lack of proper access to the site for firefighters, their vehicles and equipment and for failure to maintain an adequate supply of water at the site to fight a fire if one broke out, he said.

The dates of the suspension were not readily available Monday, Hunt said.

Hunt attended a meeting of city officials Monday morning, where it was agreed that responsibility for ensuring worker safety lies with OSHA. “That’s their jurisdiction,” Hunt said.

Mayor Lioneld Jordan said the city’s responsibility is to inform OSHA of any workplace accident it discovers. “We’re the first responders,” he said.

“I would say OSHA will be looking very seriously at this,” Jordan said.

City planners approved the apartment project’s development in March 2012.