Construction worker badly injured at Brooklyn site – There’s so much more #NYC and builders can do to reduce these accidents. We’re working with the industry on solutions.
From NY Daily News
A construction worker was critically injured on his second day of work when he fell seven stories down an elevator shaft in Brooklyn Tuesday, officials said.
The victim, an elevator mechanic whose name was not immediately released, plunged down the shaft in a building under construction on Johnson Ave. near Bushwick Ave. about 10:15 a.m., officials said.
His body broke through timber planks and landed at the bottom of the shaft in the basement, workers said. He had just started working at the site on Monday.
“We heard a big loud noise like a bag of fruits or something fell, big heavy sound,” said Paul Hayles, 45, a plumber.
“We thought he was dead. He was lifeless. (But after paramedics came) he was moving his hands … that’s when we realized he was alive.”
Plumber Oliver Dyer, 37, and another plumber jumped about 5 feet into the unfinished basement and lifted him out of the hole.
“I braced his back with my arm to keep him straight,” he said. “I laid him down on the upper floor because I couldn’t leave him there.
“He had no idea where he was. I put him aside for a minute, called 911.”
The two plumbers then comforted him while they waited for the paramedics to arrive.
Despite his injuries, the victim could speak and move his hands, the workers said. He kept asking for a co-worker, repeating “where’s my guy, where’s my guy,” according to the workers.
“I said ‘I don’t know where he is right now. ‘I was trying to tell him not to move, to be calm,” the second plumber said.
“I feel sorry for him, maybe he got kids, maybe he got family.”
He said the worker’s body slammed through 2-by-6 planks and plywood.
“I hope he’s good,” he said. “The only thing I thought of was trying to save a life.”
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