14.05.2016

Fatal crushing incident

A rental company employee died while loading a boom lift on a construction site in San Francisco yesterday.

The man, Gustavo Acevedo, 61, had arrived at the Moscone Centre expansion project in the city to collect a boom lift which had been off-hired. While loading the boom onto his truck on a ramp in the underground loading and unloading area, the platform is said to have risen rapidly towards the ceiling and crushed the man between the platform and a concrete beam. Site staff immediately rushed to his aid and lowered the platform, but it was already too late.

Acevedo, a resident of San Francisco was declared dead at the scene after paramedics failed to resuscitate him. A spokesman for the centre and the main contractor, Webcor Builders , confirmed the details, while a spokeswoman for California's Occupational Safety and Health Agency (Cal/OSHA) confirmed that it is investigating the incident and stated that the rental company concerned was Las Vegas based Ahern Rentals.
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The Moscone Centre Expansion construction site

Local information received suggests that the action of the platform going up the ramp and on to the flat trailer caused the boom to raise and that there was insufficient headroom, resulting in the incident. However we have not been able to corroborate this with a second, separate source, although it does match up to information provided by the various spokesmen providing information on the incident.