A subway construction worker was struck and killed Wednesday by equipment attached to a crane in Universal City, marking the third fatality this year on the Metro Rail project and again raising questions about its employees' safety.
The 36-year-old mechanic, Brian Bailey of Reseda, was in an 80-foot-deep shaft when he "walked into the path of grippers as they were swinging out to lock on to" a large bucket used to lift large amounts of dirt and rock out of the tunnels, said a Metropolitan Transportation Authority spokesman.
The spokesman said investigators are trying to determine why the worker was in a restricted area marked by signs reading, "Danger." The deaths this year are the first fatalities in the 10-year history of the $6.1-billion subway, the West's largest public works project.
Construction was halted as investigators from the district attorney's office and the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) conducted their examination.
Mike Roach, project manager for the tunnel builder, Traylor Bros./Frontier-Kemper, could not offer any explanation for why the worker--who had been on the job for a year and a half--was in a restricted area.
He could not say whether any safety rules were violated other than "he obviously went someplace he shouldn't have been."
"I feel terrible," Roach added. "This is a first for me. And I hope it's the last."
The accident immediately sparked questions about the adequacy of the MTA's oversight of its contractors and their safety programs for construction workers.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina, an MTA board member, said the county transit agency should stop construction of the subway "until every person who enters the tunnels or our construction sites" is assured of a safe work environment. As in the earlier deaths, Molina complained that the agency is blaming the victim, "which seems very inappropriate."
MTA interim Chief Executive Officer Julian Burke said the agency needs to consolidate safety programs that are "spread all over our organization."
Although the MTA has responsibility for overseeing the contractors building the subway, Burke emphasized that it is the construction companies that bear the responsibility to ensure a safe work site for their employees.
"We should be talking more to our contractors to see that these issues are being handled properly," he said.
