Immigrant Granite Installer Killed After Falling with Homemade Construction Box

The following report is the product of our Cooperative State partner and is presented here in its original unedited form from the state. The findings and conclusions in this report are those of the individual Cooperative State partner and do not necessarily reflect the views or policy of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

SUMMARY

On a summer day in 2009, a 50-year-old granite installer and his two sons were working alone at a construction site when the granite installer fell out of a second story window and was killed. The three granite installers worked for a subcontractor hired to install granite vanity tops and sinks in a newly constructed hotel. Work had commenced at 7:00 AM that morning. They were installing the second set of ten vanities for the day. All ten vanities, with back and side splash pieces, had been loaded onto a homemade three-sided construction box and lifted via a forklift to a second story window. The loaded construction box was not secured to the forklift. While the father unloaded the granite pieces from the construction box into the second story room, Son 1 was on the second floor working in another room, and Son 2 was on the third floor taking measurements. To reach the last vanity top, the granite installer climbed out the window and onto the construction box which then fell off the forklift onto the ground. Son 1 heard the noise, went to the room where his father was working and found his father on the ground outside of the hotel. He yelled for Son 2, and the sons went outside and found their father unresponsive. Emergency medical services were called and performed cardio-pulmonary resuscitation, and transported the father to the hospital where he was declared dead.

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