The housing market may still be rough, but one growth area for construction continues to be student housing around the country’s biggest universities. More mid-rise student housing complexes are being constructed near schools to compensate for inadequate and expensive on-campus living options at many colleges.
The boom in student housing means that more construction accidents are happening near college campuses. Earlier this week we covered a college parking garage collapse that killed several workers in Miami. Another Florida school has experienced a serious construction accident as well. Authorities say that four construction workers were injured in Oviedo, Florida, after a concrete floor fell at a student housing construction site on Monday.
WKMG-TV reports that the accident happened near the University of Central Florida’s football stadium. The workers were trapped under the concrete floor that was being lowered. Some reports say that the floor fell as much as 15 feet onto the workers. One of the workers suffered severe head and neck injuries. It is unclear whether this worker will survive his injuries.
Officials from UCF said that the school does not own the property, which will include housing for 600 students. The school will provide management services for the project once it is completed however.
The construction company is working with an OSHA investigation that has been launched in connection with this accident. It is unclear whether the construction worker injuries were attributable to workplace safety violations including allowing them to stand underneath concrete that was being lowered.
“We pay a lot of attention to safety and engineering and we are very concerned about how this happened and concerned for the family of those who were injured,” a spokesperson from the construction company said.