Wednesday 25 November 2009

Exclusive Jaret Premiere + Other Window Cleaning News



The New Star of WCR - hot off the press: 11 year old Jaret of "Jarets Window Cleaning" from Akron, Ohio maybe the youngest window cleaner going! This ultimate video in this series can be watched in high resolution from tomorrow at the Window Cleaning Resources website. Previous episodes can be found on this blog or eventually at window cleaning TV.


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Window-washer who died after fall is memorialized at accident site outside of Grand Rapids Art Museum. In her little pink bonnet, 6-month-old Peyton Cotter seemed oblivious to the rain as she smiled at her grandparents and other relatives gathered this morning on the damp sidewalk outside the Grand Rapids Art Museum. She was also blissfully unaware of the bittersweet mix of emotions as museum staff dedicated a plaque memorializing her father, Tyler Cotter. The 21-year-old new father died after falling from scaffolding as he worked 40 feet off the ground cleaning the museum's windows.
Cotter's girlfriend and his daughter's mother, Samantha Goldner, said the family continues to struggle with their grief but the plaque among the landscaping along Monroe Avenue NW declaring the area the "Tyler Cotter Memorial Walkway" means his daughter will be able to see it years from now and remember the man who shed tears of joy when she was born. "I'm glad that when people walk by, they can clearly see it," Goldner said. "It means a lot."

Pictured above: Mark Cotter, Tyler's father, spends a moment with his granddaughter Peyton Cotter outside the Grand Rapids Art Museum, at a plaque installed to commemorate Tyler. Peyton was born shortly before Tyler died in a window-washing accident at the museum.
Pictured below: Judy Cotter, Tyler's mother, spends a moment with her granddaughter Wednesday at the scene of the memorial for Tyler Cotter.



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SEATTLE - The 34-year-old window washer who survived an eight-story plunge on the job says what happened to him was a miracle. "I don't think it's luck. I know it's God (who) saved my life," said Eduardo Lozada, who spoke about last week's accident for the first time in an interview with KIRO 7 Eyewitness News reporter Gary Horcher. Lozada said he's still not sure how it happened, but while he was washing windows at a downtown Seattle highrise Thursday morning, he suddenly started to fall. He said time seemed to slow down but that he was certain he was about to die on impact.
"I have to accept that it was my last moments, and when I let go of the ropes, I know I'm going to die. So in my mind and in my heart, I die for a minute, for seconds," he said. I say, 'OK, this is the end.' I say, 'God, forgive me, and take me.'" Lozada said he closed his eyes, and his entire life appeared like a single vision. "Everything, all your life just came through your mind, and you're able to see everything at once."
Somehow, the ropes clipped to Eduardo's harness broke his fall just before he hit the sidewalk. "I said, 'I'm alive. I feel pain. Oh my God, if I feel pain, it's because I'm alive! That's when I realized that God saved my life." Lozada suffered a badly sprained ankle and a swollen knee. The only bone he broke is in the tip of his pinky finger. He said he's never been a religious man, but his brush with death has awakened a new part of him and that every day is Thanksgiving. "For me, it's a new day every morning. I feel blessed every morning, from now on."
He said his gift is knowing that there is hope in every second. "Nobody's able to give you a new life except God, and he give me a new life. And I just hope that I do better in this one." Lozada said he can't talk about the investigation into the incident but he said that he's always felt safe on the job. He said if he were physically able, he wouldn't be afraid to go back to work. Click picture for video.

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Construction workers rescued as mishap leaves one dangling: Two construction workers were rescued Tuesday after a window washer unit collapsed on the side of the 48-story Duke Energy Center under construction uptown. One of the men dangled 40 feet in the air from a lifeline while the other scrambled to the safety of a small roof. Both were equipped with safety harnesses and were unhurt, said Carlos Vergara, safety coordinator for the Batson-Cook Co., an Atlanta-based general contractor. The two were waterproofing and caulking windows on the side of the grayish-blue tower on the southern end of uptown between South Tryon and Church streets at Stonewall.
The incident is under investigation, and the company will file an incident report with the Occupational Health and Safety Administration, Vergara said. It appears one of the motors that winches the platform and its steel cables up and down might have malfunctioned, he said. Workers responded by shutting down one block of Stonewall Street and rescuing the dangling worker with a cherry picker. The other worker was standing on a roof about 20 feet off the ground.

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