THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, December 14, 1995 TAG: 9512140362
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MIKE MATHER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 58 lines
A 20-year-old window washer who initially survived an 11-story fall into a mulch bed Wednesday died five hours later in a local hospital.
Daniel R. Waterfield of the 200 block of Claremont Ave. in Hampton, was awake and alert after the fall and was able to speak with rescue workers and hospital staff members. But his condition gradually worsened, and he died about five hours after arriving at Virginia Beach General Hospital's Trauma Center, a hospital spokeswoman said.
``He was conscious and he was answering all (the rescue workers') questions,'' said Gordon W. Mathewson, who manages the condominium building where the accident happened. ``He didn't complain about any pain.''
Mathewson dialed 911 and then draped a coat over Waterfield, who was lying on his back in a 10-foot-wide swatch of pine-bark mulch at the base of the 14-story Oceanfront building.
Waterfield's boss said safety precautions designed to avoid a fall apparently weren't followed.
``Let's just say the safeguards in place to prevent something like this weren't used, and we'll leave it at that,'' Jim King said.
King is part owner of Independent Services of Virginia in Chesapeake, a full-service building maintenance company that had employed Waterfield for two years. The company cleans the condominium windows three times a year, King said.
The accident happened around 10 a.m. at the 3800 Oceanfront Condominium Association building, near the intersection of Atlantic Avenue and 38th Street.
King said Waterfield was inching from floor to floor using a system of ropes designed to lower his small seat down the south side of the building. King wouldn't say exactly how the accident happened.
A police investigator said the harness may have failed.
Initially, Waterfield dropped two stories and grabbed a rope, investigators said. While Waterfield dangled from the building's side, a co-worker on the roof fashioned a loop of line and lowered it to him, King said. But Waterfield couldn't hang on long enough to grab it.
Waterfield suffered a fractured arm and severe internal injuries, police and hospital workers said.
The only known witnesses are Waterfield's co-worker and a delivery driver who was nearby. Police are investigating the accident.
Falls are the second-leading cause of accidental death in Virginia, behind car crashes. Last year, 245 people died after accidental falls, according to state records. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
HUY NGUYEN/The Virginian-Pilot
Daniel R. Waterfield, 20, fell from this Oceanfront building.
KEYWORDS: ACCIDENT GENERAL FATALITY FALLS by CNB