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OSHA investigates crane accident at new Dallas Cowboys stadium

11:44 PM CDT on Friday, June 13, 2008

By JEFF MOSIER / The Dallas Morning News
jmosier@dallasnews.com

Two of three workers hospitalized after a crane accident at the new Dallas Cowboys stadium have been released from the hospital, officials said today.

However, Wesley Harlow, 25, of Burleson, remained in Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas in critical condition.

Susan Hall, a hospital spokeswoman, said that Mr. Harlow’s family did not want to publicly comment about the accident.

The accident investigation continued Friday. The federal Occupational Health and Safety Administration said it expected to complete the investigation and issue a report in about six months.

Thursday’s accident happened about 2 p.m. between the stadium’s dual arches just outside the northeast end zone. The workers were assembling a crane when a cable connector “failed” on the erecting crane, which allowed the cables and some other parts to fall, according to a written statement from Manhattan Construction, the project’s contractor.

All three were employees of Derr Steel Erection Company of Euless, a subcontractor on the project. Stadium project manager Jack Hill said the workers were all wearing protective equipment at the time.

This is the third high-profile accident during construction of the $1.1 billion stadium, but there have been no fatalities. In August, a construction worker was injured after being struck in the back with crane cables while on an upper deck of the new stadium. A worker also fell 20 feet from scaffolding onto the field in January 2007.

Steve Quirk, a community development and planning employee for the city of Arlington, said last week in a speech to the Dallas and Fort Worth chapters of the American Society of Civil Engineers that Manhattan has a very good safety record. He said then that those were the only two major injuries during the stadium’s construction and that both employees were back at work.

On Wednesday, Omar Wray, 37, of Irving, was killed at a construction site on Maple Avenue in Dallas when he was struck by the crane’s hook that broke loose and fell on him. The TXI employee was apparently washing out a cement-mixer truck when he was struck.

Construction safety has been in the news recently, particularly after eight people were killed in a pair of recent crane accidents in New York City.

In light of this week’s crane incidents, QUOIN, a local chapter of the Associated General Contractors of America, plans to meet with area general contractors to talk about crane safety. The goal is to discuss what can be done to prevent future crane accidents, said Raleigh Roussell, QUOIN’s president and CEO.

“There have been too many accidents,” Mr. Roussell said. “There’s something going on and we’re going to look at some type of solutions or actions that we can take to stem what’s happening. … We need to start comparing notes and gather as much of the details of each accident to see where there is a common thread.”

Staff writers Debra Dennis, Eric Aasen and WFAA-TV contributed to this story.