18.06.2009

Window cleaner fall

A 21 year old window cleaner fell to his death on Wednesday after the rig from which he was suspended broke free of the building and dropped over 12 metres to the ground.

Tylor Cotter, 21, was washing the windows on the Grand Rapids Art Museum from a suspended harness/chair when something went wrong. Witnesses say that it looked as though he started to fall and was caught, but that the rig then came down on top of him possibly rendering him unconscious as he made no effort to break his fall.
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The suspension rig after it hit the ground.

Cotter, a local man, died a short time later at the hospital. He had worked for the cleaning contractor, Award Window Cleaning Services, for three years.

Award specialises in high rise window cleaning and has been cited for previous equipment failures and accidents. Michigan, Osha (MIOSHA) was investigating the accident yesterday.