13 WTHR - Indianapolis News |Family: Dead construction worker was all about safety

Family: Dead construction worker was all about safety

David MacAnally/Eyewitness News

Indianapolis - Worked is now stopped at the Convention Center expansion site after a worker fell to his death there Wednesday.

Construction is set to resume Monday as investigators work to pinpoint what killed a veteran steel worker at the former site of the RCA Dome.

Stanley Roberts, 55, an avid fisherman and grandfather, died after falling five stories from the basket of his construction lift at the Convention Center site.

At home, they last saw him alive as he headed to work Wednesday. His wife Kathy says, "He was glad to go to work. He said goodbye to the dog, told me goodbye."

Roberts was thrown from his lift's basket when the lift somehow tilted forward hitting some steel beams. Roberts was wearing a safety harness designed to keep him from falling, but Thursday, the state's John Klipsch said, "Several of the safety inspectors saw Mr. Roberts tie off to his mechanical lift several times during the day (Wednesday), but at the time of the accident for some unknown reason he was not tied off."

"Tied off" means fastening your safety harness to the lift itself.

Cindy Vincent, the victim's sister-in-law says "He was just so safety everything. I just know when he went to work he was safe."

Roberts wife Kathy thinks his harness "somehow came loose or somehow it may have broken or something may have sliced it. I don't know." But she is sure her husband had that harness tied off. She said "No way my husband would have gone in the air without being tied off."

She thinks investigators will find the harness hook either failed or broke. But the state Stadium and Building Authority's John Klipsch says "There's no sign that they've found that so far. All the investigators in the field now believe he was not clipped to the safety device properly."

Kathy Roberts says "He was just the kindest, gentlest, most loving, generous man I have ever known in my life and he was the love of my life." 

Roberts was working for Harmon Steel. On Thursday, the company sent it's condolences. It said Roberts was trained in the use of the safety gear and defended the company's safety record.