The danger of falling debris in the construction industry

Falling debris can cause severe injury or death to workers and pedestrians. Construction material such as tools or large pieces of scaffolding can sometime fall due to strong winds or simply due to carelessness. When falling objects fall from great heights, the consequences can be destructive. The impact of a falling object can cause severe head and brain injury and in some cases even death to innocent bystanders.

The developer and builders of a downtown Calgary highrise whose roofing material blew off and killed a girl on the street below have been charged with violating the Alberta Safety Codes Act. Michelle Krsek, 3, was killed instantly on Aug. 1 when she was struck by a piece of corrugated metal more than three metres long that strong winds blew from the top of an 18-storey building under construction in the City of Calgary in Canada.

You would think that an unfortunate accident like this would move the contractors in this area to add additional safety guards to prevent this from happening. Unfortunately this is not the case. In the last two months, there have a been a total of six incidents that debris has plummeted from a building under construction in Calgary. The city has issued a stop-work notice on the Ovation Tower project, where the most recent incident happend. The stop-work notice will stay in place until investigators have established it's safe to restart construction. Calgary's chief building official, Kevin Griffiths, has states that city officials have already initiated a number of efforts to increase awareness in the construction industry of their obligations to make a site safe.

The Calgary Herald lists the six incidents in the past two months:

1. Oct. 6: Several pieces of debris and plywood flew off the Ovation tower at 33 Spruce Place S. W.

2. Oct. 6: A large section of a plastic sign fell 12 storeys from a downtown building. The sign was on the west facade at 926 5th Ave. S. W.

3. Sept. 26: Scaffolding fell 19 storeys from the under-construction Homburg Harris Centre onto a parking garage at 215 9th Ave. S. W.

4. Sept. 26: A hoist failed and a crane, tethered to the Bow tower building, fell and smashed windows at Centre Street S. E. between Fifth and Sixth Avenues.

5. Aug. 29: Two panes of glass plummet from a high-rise under construction at palliser south tower on 10th Ave. S. E. to the street below.

6. Aug. 1: A steel bundle fell from the roof of the Le Germain hotel-condo project on 9th Avenue S. W., three-year-old Michelle Krsek.

In December of 2008, in a Manhattan construction site in Times Square four construction workers were hit by falling debris. One worker was in critical condition after he was buried from the waist down inside the 25-foot deep pit. The critically injured worker was partially buried by scaffolding and concrete that tumbled from a 35-story Times Square building. Three other workers, at the site, suffered minor injuries. At the time, the injured workers were working in an underground excavation pit for a new subway station entrance in Times Square.

Sources:
"Charges laid in case of deadly falling debris." Cbcnews.ca. 28 Sept. 2009. Web. 12 Oct. 2009.
"N.Y. Times Square construction worker escapes death from falling debris." Justice News Flash. 15 Dec. 2008. Web. 12 Oct. 2009.
Richards, Gwendolyn. "Sixth falling-debris incident in Calgary in two months." Calgary Herald. 6 Oct. 2009. Web. 12 Oct. 2009.