HURRICANE — Hurricane Ambulance transported one man to Dixie Regional Medical Center in St. George after he fell from a collapsing structure Wednesday afternoon.
Just before 4 p.m. a team of construction workers were setting roof trusses for the new location of Tink’s Superior Auto Parts building, located on the north side of State Street in Hurricane, when a gust of wind blew and knocked a truss over causing a domino effect with multiple trusses.
“The trusses scissored down on themselves,” Hurricane Fire Chief Tom Kuhlmann said. “One man fell and had to be transported to the hospital. He was in stable condition.”
Apparently a gust of wind came and knocked some of the trusses over, said Layne Blackmore, owner of Blackmore Construction.
“We were picking a truss up off the trailer and heard a noise,” Dixie Components roofer Josh Hallam, 22, said. “As we looked over, probably 25 trusses were rolling — or falling like dominos — one guy ran across the wall out of the way. The other guy, on the opposite wall, was harnessed to the three trusses that fell and his harness pulled him down. He fell down head first onto his head.”
No other injuries were reported. The remaining construction workers are currently resetting the trusses and will be back on schedule tomorrow, Blackmore said.
Update: The construction worker who fell is on the mend and should be back to work in a few days.
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I drove by there an hour before the accident…one crane, over twenty unbraced trusses and two guys trying to navigate this situation….15ft from a street full of busy people. Yeah, that’s safe……In California, this type of accident is what OSHA thrives on. In Utah, OSHA is a privately held corporation that is only called in when notified by the victim, an insurance company (rarely) or the site job foreman. So, unless the guy who was dropped on his head has a concerned friend, this will NEVER be investigated. Think I’m kidding…I’m not. This is how companies get away with putting a 70ft crane on a major boulevard, in the center or a town, swinging trusses and putting lives in danger. Just my humble rant of the day since moving here.
Utah OSHA is a joke.
And, we still await OSHA results from the forklift incident that killed a boy in Colorado City…
after much experience setting trusses i will say this flat trusses are some of the most dangerous they require extra braces and more manpower to secure properly if not done correctly they are very dangerous.
secondly the man should not have been tethered to trusses at that distance its evidence enough that the man not tied off was able to avoid falling the freedom to move is much better than not .