by Richard Robins
22 September 2010
A construction worker has been injured in Jamestown, New York, after falling through the roof of a railway depot on which he was working.
The man, who is unnamed, was not seriously hurt in the fall, which happened when the roof of the Erie-Lackawanna train depot on West Second Street collapsed last Friday. It is understood that the roof, usually supported by a layer of wooden planks, had been compromised in order to accommodate a new layer of concrete that had not yet been added.
"It's obvious the temporary plywood was removed," said Mark Schlemmer, project engineer for the city of Jamestown. "He stepped on a bad plank and fell though."
Although his injuries are not serious enough to warrant work stopping on the site, it is still possible that the man could make a work accident claim. It was revealed that only employees working with certain types of roofing qualify for harnesses, and this man was not one of them.