Man dies after falling from a Lake Norman waterfront mansion, police say

State safety inspectors are investigating the death of a construction worker who police said fell from a waterfront mansion on Lake Norman in Cornelius.

The worker fell just before 9 a.m. Wednesday from a home in the 17500 block of Paradise Cove Court, according to a Cornelius Police Department incident report. That’s off Jetton Road and West Catawba Avenue off Interstate 77 Cornelius exit 28.

Mecklenburg County property tax records list the home as 2 1/2 stories and 7,300 square feet.

In the police report, the responding officer said the worker died of injuries from a fall. The report lists the death as accidental and offers no details about what happened, including how far the man fell or if he had any fall-protection equipment.

Police have yet to release the man’s name and age. They have not responded to a request for comment from The Charlotte Observer since Wednesday. The owners of the home did not return a phone message from the Observer on Friday.

The worker was affiliated with Waxhaw-based Taylor Roofing Inc., NC Department of Labor spokeswoman Dolores Quesenberry told the Observer. The owner of the company declined to comment when reached by the Observer.

Quesenberry said she didn’t know the worker’s name.

The NC Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Division has “opened an investigation” into the death, she said.

When a worker falls off a roof and is hurt or dies, state inspectors will determine if fall protections were in place, if the guardrail system had a top rail and mid-rail and if the employer trained its workers on protecting against falls, according to the state Occupational Safety and Health Division website.

Investigators also check to see if the worker had “personal protective equipment” such as “slip-resistant steel-toed work shoes, hard hat and a personal fall arrest system,” according to the state website. Inspectors also determine if ladders “were inspected for structural defects.”

About 50 roofers are killed on the job in the U.S. each year, most by falls, according to the Center for Construction Research and Training. That’s the fifth-highest work-related death rate in construction, at 29.9 deaths per 100,000 workers, center statistics show.

Government reports blame “inadequate fall protection” for most of the fatal falls, according to the center.

This story was originally published June 7, 2019 at 3:37 PM.