Scaffold Accident in Kansas

KANSAS CITY, Mo. A 54-year-old man was killed Wednesday morning in a construction accident in the West Bottoms area. An old brick building at 12th and Liberty streets is being turned into an art studio, and one worker on the ground was killed. Officer Rob Shorrock said the man was hit on the head by an 80-pound piece of metal that was supporting scaffolding about five stories up. "They were adjusting the scaffolding, getting ready to move the scaffolding. While in the process of doing so, a large piece of metal which holds the scaffolding up on the roof, came unattached, fell down and hit the gentleman on the head," Shorrock said. "Just one of those one-in-a-million accidents -- very bizarre."
The victim was not wearing a hard hat, officials said. Police identified him as Kimberly D. McKinley, of Kansas City, Kan. Witnesses told police that another workman was standing nearby and was able to move before the metal crashed down. Apparently safety bracing on the rooftop had been removed, KMBC's Bev Chapman reported. "It could happen to anybody at any time, really," said Cory Berg, who works on scaffolding a few blocks away. "One wrong turn, and that's what happens." Investigators said it appears the victim was removing an electric motor used to move the cables, and at some point, it pulled on the line to the supports, causing them to fall. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating.

A 56-year-old man was killed while setting up a scaffolding outside a building in the West Bottoms on Wednesday morning, authorities said. The man was preparing to hoist the scaffolding to work on the exterior of the Design Studios building at 12th and Liberty. A steel portion of the anchoring mechanism for the ropes being used to lift the scaffolding broke loose from the building and hit him in the head, killing him. "There are large cables on top of the roof, they go all the way across the roof to the other side of the building to secure the scaffolding so it does not fall," said Officer Rob Shorrock of the Kansas City, MO, Police Department. "It was just one of those freak things." People in the area say that the crew had been cleaning windows or washing bricks for the past week. The man, whose name has not been released, was a contractor for All-American Scaffold of Kansas City, Kansas. The company declined to comment on the story, but did say that they are conducting an internal investigation. OSHA is also looking into the accident.

More detail here:

KCK man dies in scaffold accident in West Bottoms: A 54-year-old man died Wednesday morning when an 80-pound scaffold bracket fell from a five-story building in Kansas City and hit him in the head. Kim D. McKinley of Kansas City, Kan., owned a company called Design Studio that performed remodeling work. He had been hired to replace old mortar on a building that houses apartments and businesses at 12th and Liberty streets in the West Bottoms. Robert Jordan, who had worked for McKinley for just two days, said he was standing next to McKinley when the accident occurred about 8:15 a.m.
Jordan said they had been using the scaffold to tuck-point one side of the building until a tile lifted and mortar started breaking loose near the roof. An employee from the company that owned the rented scaffolding equipment told Jordan and McKinley to lower the scaffold. “It ain’t safe,” Jordan said he told them. The workers decided to move the scaffolding to another side of the building. They removed safety cables from scaffold brackets on the roof to prepare for the shift.
McKinley disconnected the safety cables on the scaffold on the ground and told Jordan they needed to remove an electric motor from the scaffold. McKinley then hooked the motor to a cable attached to a scaffold bracket — though workers later told police nothing is supposed to be attached to the bracket without the safety cables. When McKinley pushed a button that raised the motor and scaffold an inch or two off the ground, Jordan heard crackling noises from the roof.
Jordan jumped back and shouted at McKinley to do the same. A worker on the roof saw the metal bracket dislodge and yelled for McKinley and Jordan to “Watch out!” But the heavy iron bracket crashed down more than 50 feet and struck McKinley’s head. It also swiped Jordan’s ankle.
McKinley collapsed and didn’t move. An ambulance rushed him to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. He was not wearing a hard hat, but police said they didn’t think it would have helped. A representative from All American Scaffold, which owned the equipment, was on the roof but setting up equipment on another side of the building when the accident occurred. A man who answered the phone at the company Wednesday said the company was conducting an internal investigation. He declined further comment. Jordan said he thought McKinley may have forgotten that they had removed the safety cables. “They had been working 12-hour days for, like, 14 days in a row,” Jordan said. “It might have slipped his mind that it (the cable) was loose. It shouldn’t have happened.”