Worker dies after fall at construction site
OSHA’s Allentown office conducting investigation
EAST NORRITON >> A man died last week after falling from the roof of a construction site off Germantown Pike, according to the East Norriton Township Police Department.
Officers were notified of the incident around 3:48 p.m. on July 6 at the Amazon warehouse, located at 53 W. Germantown Pike in East Norriton, Chief Brandon Pasquale said in a phone interview with MediaNews Group.
The “fall victim,” identified as Wilmer DanilloMejia Landaverde, of New Jersey, was a “subcontractor,” working as a “roofer” at the IMC Construction job site, according to Pasquale. While Landaverde’s exact age is unknown, Pasquale said he was “in his 20s.”
Pasquale said when construction workers were “working on the roof, replacing it” there was a “segment they had cut from the roof,” and “from my understanding, when they were moving it, they were tossing pieces out of the way.”
Pasquale went on to say that when Landaverde went to “move out of the way, [he] stepped on [a] piece [that was] already cut, and he fell through.”
Pasquale said emergency medical services personnel arrived on the scene and tended to Landaverde, who was then flown by way of PennSTAR Helicopter to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center in Philadelphia.
Landaverde was later pronounced dead, but it’s unclear if he died at the construction site or at the hospital. The Philadelphia Medical Examiner’s Office did not have his report in its system.
A spokesperson for IMC Construction, based in Malvern, provided a statement to MediaNews Group: “Despite extensive safety training, inspections, procedures, instructions, safety personnel on site and mandated safety requirements, the worker was witnessed by his co-workers removing his mandated safety line from his safety harness while on the roof and within minutes fell.”
While Pasquale said the incident was “not a criminal matter,” Amazon has been “cooperative with the investigation.” East Norriton police department is also working with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
Leni Fortson, an OSHA spokesperson, confirmed the agency is also conducting an investigation, which she said could take up to six months to complete.
Along with this most recent incident, IMC Construction has another “open” inspection from a “complaint,” which was filed on June 2 at a construction site located in Whitehall in Lehigh County, according to OSHA’s online inspection report.
When asked about the circumstances surrounding the secondary inspection, Fortson said that “we don’t comment on open inspections.”
“No violations have been cited. It’s an ongoing issue,” she told MediaNews Group in a phone interview.