Multiple deaths in NC linked to accidents on construction-site scaffolding

The scaffolding collapse that killed three construction workers in Charlotte Monday was just one in a string of similar incidents statewide.

At least 16 people have died in scaffolding-related incidents over the past decade, OSHA records show. Of those, at least 11 involved scaffolds that collapsed or malfunctioned, records show.

Among them:

▪ In March 2015, three workers in Raleigh died and another was seriously injured when a track to a “mast climber” scaffold fell to the ground. A mast climber scaffold is an elevator-like apparatus that carries workers to different floors. One worker was in a portable toilet that was crushed by the falling platform.

▪ In April 2019, a construction worker in Pine Knoll Shores was installing sheetrock from a scaffolding when a wooden plank slid, causing him to fall 16 feet to the concrete floor. He later died at the hospital.

▪ In December, 2020, a 47-year-old construction worker was remodeling a home in Timberlake, north of Raleigh, when a board he was standing on broke, dropping the man nearly 13 feet to the ground. He died the following day.

▪ In May, 2021, a construction worker in La Grange, southeast of Raleigh, was attempting to hand a bundle of shingles to a co-worker on a roof when the scaffold he was standing on collapsed, causing him to fall five feet. He died in the ambulance.

▪ In February 2022, a 56-year-old man in Jacksonville was walking on a plank that catapulted, causing him to fall 14 feet to his death.

There were 64 workplace deaths in North Carolina in the fiscal year ending in September 2022, according to data from the state Department of Labor. That was down from the 92 in the 2021 fiscal year and 80 in the 2020 fiscal year.

There were 23 construction fatalities in the state in the 2022 fiscal year, state records show.

This story was originally published January 3, 2023 at 4:58 PM with the headline "Multiple deaths in NC linked to accidents on construction-site scaffolding."