One of the last deadly construction accidents of 2012 happened in early December in New York State. Authorities say that workers at a Bronx construction site were using a crane to lift a flatbed containing a massive air conditioning unit. The workers failed to secure the cooling unit however and it slit off the truck and hit a worker who was guiding the crane operator.
“He would do everything he could to be a good provider for his family,” the construction worker’s sister said to the New York Daily News. The father of two was pinned for more than an hour.
Possibly the most notable construction accident to occur in the last months of 2012 was the Miami Dade College parking garage collapse. The accident happened in October and killed four construction workers.
The widow of one of the construction workers filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the construction company involved. Her husband was not instantly killed and suffered through a particularly gruesome set of rescue attempts which included the amputation of both of his legs and several resuscitations.
“Shortly after that he flat-lined about three times at the scene, was taken to Ryder Trauma Center where he flat-lined several other times, and then he died,” the widow’s attorney said. The attorney links the collapse to a column which was not properly cemented and then compromised by a crane that hit it a few days prior to the accident.
Other notable construction accidents include:
- Oct. 22 – A Minneapolis construction worker died at the MSP airport when a backhoe fell on him.
- Dec. 17 – A Florida construction worker was hospitalized after a parking structure collapsed in Celebration, Florida.
- Dec. 18 – An Alabama construction worker died and two others were injured after 30 foot scaffolding collapsed at a school construction site in DeKalb County.
- Dec. 27 – A worker died at a home construction site in San Francisco. The man fell from scaffolding near an unfinished stairwell
- Jan. 1 – International construction accident: Five Chinese workers were killed and 18 others were injured when a concrete platform collapsed in the Pudong New Area of Shanghai.