WORKER HURT IN FALL
Series of incidents highlight dangers
A construction worker was flown to a Boston hospital Friday after he fell at the construction site of Needham’s new public safety facility, capping a perilous week of workplace accidents that left four people dead and two injured.
The worker fell 15 to 20 feet at 8:38 a.m. from a beam into where the foundation of the building is being built at 88 Chestnut St., said Cyndi Roy Gonzalez, a spokeswoman for the town of Needham.
“Accidents like these are scary and dangerous,” Roy Gozalez said. “We’re thankful his injuries are non-lifethreatening and are wishing him a speedy recovery.”
The general contractor for the project is Consigli Construction Co., which does have a permit for the work, she said.
In 2014, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited Consigli for one serious, welding-related violation and one record-keeping violation, with a proposed total fine of $3,500, according to OSHA’s website. The citations and fines were later rescinded, and the case was closed, an OSHA spokesman said.
Amy Bowen, a Consigli spokeswoman, said the man who fell worked for a subcontractor: Winchesterbased Solberg Precast & Concrete Cutting Co. Inc. The company could not immediately be reached for comment and did not appear in OSHA’s database.
Work on the $70 million Needham project began at the end of 2018 and included a new fire station, which opened last fall, Roy Gonzalez said.
The man who fell was working on a section of the facility that will house a new police station, which will be completed by next January, she said.
The incident was another in a rash of on-the-job accidents that advocates for workers say mark a worrisome winter amid the already-deadly coronavirus pandemic.
“Construction work is typically among the most dangerous jobs,” said Jodi Sugerman-Brozan, executive director of MassCOSH, a state occupational safety coalition. “No one should have to die for a paycheck.”
MassCOSH cited nine workplace deaths so far this year, including one in Belmont, where a box-truck driver was killed in an accident on Thursday.
On Wednesday, a man was killed and another was critically injured in Cambridge after a stairwell they were working on collapsed at a parking garage.
And last week, two construction workers were killed when a truck knocked them into an excavation ditch in Boston’s Financial District.
In the previous two months, a forklift fatality occurred in Westfield, a worker was killed in a skid steer loader accident in Chelmsford, a box-truck driver was killed in a collision in Marlboro, a truck mechanic was crushed under a trailer in Wilmington, and a handyman fell to his death from a ladder while working in Chelsea.
These incidents are in addition to work-related coronavirus deaths.
“With COVID, we know that workers are getting sick on the job and are dying as a result of their exposure at work,” Sugarman-Brozan said.
As of March 2, OSHA was notified of 1,066 employer-reported fatalities and 1,812 hospitalizations related to COVID-19 nationwide, said Ted Fitzgerald, an OSHA spokesman.