04.08.2021

Fatal crushing incident

We have received reports of man that died last summer from injuries sustained in a boom lift crushing/entrapment incident three months earlier in Batesville, Arkansas.

The incident occurred on May 8th 2020 on the site of a new building for the First Community Bank. Thomas Salvador Galluzzo, 22, was welding a joint between a steel plate and beam from the platform of an articulated boom lift when he became trapped between the platform and an overhead beam.

Two welders working from different booms lifts noticed that something was a wrong as he was slumped over the controls and did not respond when they shouted over to him. The two men returned to the ground and lowered his platform to find him out cold and not breathing. They carried out CPR and when the emergency services arrived, they detected a pulse and he was rushed to hospital. He survived for more than three months but sadly passed away on August 22nd.

He was apparently employed by Odom Construction Services which was carrying out the steel erection on the project. The two men who lowered him to the ground are reported to have said: “The particular lift has a levelling safety feature than can crush someone between the lift and a beam if it is adjusted too abruptly,” when giving evidence to the attending police officer.
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The late Thomas Salvador Galluzzo