13 WTHR - Indianapolis News |Worker killed in downtown construction accident

Worker killed in downtown construction accident

Indianapolis - A worker was killed in a construction accident at the site of the new convention center Wednesday afternoon.

Video from Chopper 13 showed a bucket ladder at the site buckled sideways next to a structure under construction. Stanley Roberts, a 55-year-old worker for Harmon Steel of Indianapolis, died from a fall of about 50 feet.

"It appears to be one of two things. Either the device was in transit at the time of the accident and toppled, or it may have been stationary and toppled," said IMPD Sgt. Paul Thompson.

The Indiana Occupational Safety and Health Administration is assisting IMPD detectives in investigating the accident.

"Our hearts go out to the families. It is an unfortunate accident, it's rare. All of the companies that work on these large projects have a strict safety protocol and usually when something bad happens, it's a freak accident and it is unfortunate," said John Klipsch, executive director of the Indiana Stadium and Convention Building Authority. "Up until now we had a great safety record on this project. We will investigate the problem and see what happened."

The construction site is over the area where the RCA Dome used to stand.

Statement from Harmon Steel, Inc.:

The Harmon Steel family wishes to express our sincere condolences to Mr. Roberts' family. Our sympathies are with his wife and the rest of his family and friends. Mr. Roberts was a valued employee and will be greatly missed.

Harmon Steel continues to investigate the incident which occurred at the Indianapolis Convention Center project site yesterday. We know that Mr. Roberts was operating a JLG 800AJ mobile articulating boom lift and not a crane as has been previously reported. The lift operated by Mr. Roberts tipped over and struck a structural steel beam on the partially completed building. Mr. Roberts was the only person in the lift at the time.

Mr. Roberts was a member of Ironworkers Local 22 and had been trained in the use of mobile lifts such as the one he was operating at the time of the accident. At this point, it is unclear exactly what caused the lift to become unstable and topple over. Mr. Roberts was wearing a safety harness, although, reports from police and Indiana Occupational Safety and Health Administration (IOSHA) investigators indicate that the harness was not attached to the lift basket.

We continue to conduct our investigation into this situation and to cooperate with IOSHA in their investigation. Harmon Steel considers worker safety to be our highest priority and places great value on our safety record. We are a founding member of MICCS, the Metro Indianapolis Coalition for Construction Safety, and are a certified partner with the Indiana Department of Labor. Our incidents of lost time accidents and injuries are well below the national average for our work classification.