AM Construction Site Collapse Sends 4 Workers To Hospital

A new building that was being built as part of the Texas A&M’s Equine Center collapsed over the weekend, injuring at least four construction workers when the steel beams toppled over. The workers were trapped for just over 30 minutes before rescue crews could extricate them from the fallen building. The fallen structure had to be stabilized so as not to endanger more lives.

An investigation is ongoing as to the cause of the construction site accident. Between 25 and 30 workers were present at the time of the collapse, but thankfully no one was fatally injured.

The structure involved in the construction site accident was an English Riding Arena.

Construction has been ongoing since October on the complex. It is being built by Gamma Construction Company out of Houston and was designed by Kirksey Architecture, also out of Houston. Once complete, it will be an $80 million, 300,000 square foot facility intended to bring all of A&M’s horse programs – academic and otherwise – into one state-of-the-art facility.

The Occupation Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is investigating the construction site accident. According to OSHA statistics, nearly 20 percent of all fatal workplace accidents take place on a construction site or involve construction workers. OSHA has classified the most dangerous construction site risks as the “Fatal Four,” which includes:

Falls

Electrocutions

Struck by Object

Caught in or between – or crush accidents

Eliminating the Fatal Four could save as many as 400 lives every year by making construction sites safer locations for workers.

Source: Houston Chronicle, “4 injured when A&M equine center collapses,” June 22, 2013