Listen: 911 caller describes fatal scaffolding collapse at Charlotte construction site

Multiple people were “under rubble” in the wake of the January scaffolding collapse at a Charlotte construction site that killed three people, according to a witness who described the scene in a 911 call placed moments after the incident happened.

In the call, obtained by The Charlotte Observer through a public records request, the witness says he could see three people lying “motionless.” The caller, according to the audio, was working on a “tower crane” at the time of the collapse.

“I just felt them hit my tower, looked down and it collapsed below me,” the caller tells a dispatcher. “… I see three bodies laying down there. I hope they’re not dead.”

The call was placed about “a minute or two” after the collapse happened, the caller tells the dispatcher. The dispatcher says it was the first 911 call made about the incident.

This is that call.

This story was originally published March 24, 2023 at 6:00 AM.

Mary Ramsey

The Charlotte Observer

Mary Ramsey is the local government accountability reporter for The Charlotte Observer. A native of the Carolinas, she studied journalism at the University of South Carolina and has also worked in Phoenix, Arizona and Louisville, Kentucky. Support my work with a digital subscription