Two workers fell this morning from the roof of the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium where they were performing regular maintenance. Fortunately, no fatalities or life-threatening injuries resulted. That's according to the AP, Dallas Morning News and local television coverage.
Sadly, such reports don't initially delve into issues of safey that affect the construction industry and its workers. Nor do they examine the quality-of-life for workers whose injuries, while not life threatening, are severe and could possibly cuase long-time suffering as a result of not following standard safety protocol.
The two workers reportedly work for Manhattan Construction, the contractor that built the stadium. All reports say the workers were not wearing standard harnesses for fall protection. Arlingon Fire Department assistant chief Don Crowson later told Texas Construction reporter Debra Wood that his crew "did in fact remove safety harnesses from the victims. . . but [those] were not attached to an anchor."
The retractable dome roof is nearly 300-ft high. The two workers may have slipped at least 50 ft and landed on a lower section of the roof where a parapet stopped their fall. Temperatures in Dallas were unusually cold today, and ice is said to have been a possible factor in the accident.
This video posted by the DMN, shows the section where the workers landed and rescue efforts as they were carried out by the Arlington Fire Department.
As one social-networker told me after I posted the breaking news on Twitter a few moments ago, "They've had the worst luck." I assume he means the project team as a whole, and it's a real shame.
A crane accident in summer 2008 injured three workers on the site; just days after one worker was electrocuted. The Cowboys' practice facility collapsed in May injuring 12 due to design flaws that didn't meet wind-load demands. Summit Structures manufactured the prefab facility that was installed in 2003.
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