ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, June 28, 1996 TAG: 9606280053
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: LISA K. GARCIA STAFF WRITER
THE CONSTRUCTION COMPANY OWNER would not say if the man were wearing his lanyard or following other required safety procedures.
A Pulaski construction worker helping to renovate the roof of Virginia Tech's Cassell Coliseum fell to his death Thursday when he stepped onto a section covered by only a ceiling tile, authorities said.
Dewey Wayne Duncan, 27, was closing the roof, a process done each evening to protect the interior from rain, when he fell 90 feet to the coliseum floor, according to the general contractor, Allen R. Neely.
The Virginia Tech Volunteer Rescue Squad arrived at the coliseum about 1:45 p.m. They took Duncan to Columbia Montgomery Regional Hospital, where he was pronounced dead about 2 p.m.
Neely is the owner and operator of Allen R. Neely Co. Inc. of Narrows, which Virginia Tech hired as the general contractor on the coliseum project. Duncan worked for AAR of North Carolina, a subcontractor hired by Neely, and had started work on the project just two days before the accident, Neely said.
Neely's company mandated all the safety procedures to be followed for his employees and for the subcontractors, he said. An AAR representative could not be reached for comment.
Neely, standing inside the coliseum several feet from where Duncan landed on the arena floor, said his company has one of the best safety records of any major contractor in the state. Each project his company contracts has a safety plan written for it and each day begins with a meeting about safety, he said.
Breaking the safety policy, a copy of which each employee gets, means strict punishment. A first offense brings a written warning, a second offense means a three-day loss of pay and on a third offense the employee is fired, the policy states.
The first lines of the safety plan for the coliseum roof renovations talk about "fall protection."
"A full-body harness required on roof, incomplete scaffolding, or any place where there is a potential fall of 6 feet or more," the plan states. Neely pointed to the bright yellow harness wrapped around both his legs, arms and chest and said he never goes on the roof without attaching his harness to the safety ropes that line the roof. The harness attaches to the safety lines using a lanyard.
Neely would not comment on whether Duncan was wearing his lanyard at the time of the accident and said the state investigators would release a report about the accident within a few weeks.
Safe areas to walk on the roof are marked, and workers must stay within those areas. Neely would not comment on whether Duncan stepped outside the marked area when he fell.
Investigators from the state Department of Labor and Industry were at the site within a couple of hours of the accident.
"We will figure out how he could have fallen if he followed our safety procedures," Neely said. "I feel really bad this happened; up to this date we had no injuries on this job."
Tech spokesman Jeff Douglas said the university "regrets this tragedy just as we would any other tragic event that occurred on campus."
The $3.35 million renovation project began in June, Douglas said. It is scheduled to be complete in October. The renovations will increase the strength of the roof from its original ability to withstand 20 pounds per square foot to 30 pounds, Neely said.
Neely said Tech officials were concerned about the 36-year-old roof's strength after a January snowstorm dumped nearly 2 feet of snow and an estimated 26 pounds of pressure per square foot on the roof. Tech had to move two men's basketball games because of the overburdened Cassell roof.
LENGTH: Medium: 77 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ALAN KIM/Staff. A Pulaski man fell 90 feet to his deathby CNBat Virginia Tech's Cassell Coliseum when he stepped onto a ceiling
tile, which gave way. The hole he fell through is the single hole
just above the suspended lighting platform. color. KEYWORDS: FATALITY