Construction worker dies in accident

A Hillsborough man was killed early Thursday morning while working near a campus construction site.

According to University police reports, David Roy Phillips, 58, an employee of Chandler Concrete in Burlington, parked his concrete truck in the left lane of Pittsboro Street to check his load.

He did not set the parking brake or close the driver's side door. The truck began to roll backwards, and the door caught Phillips, dragging him 65 feet, reports state.

He died shortly after being pinned between the truck and a fence at the McCauley Street intersection. Paramedics made unsuccessful attempts to resuscitate Phillips, who had worked with the company for nine and a half years.

"Obviously, it's a very sad day for our company," said Steve Jones, director of human resources for Chandler Concrete. "We're very shocked and saddened by the tragedy."

Construction on the nearby Global Education Center came to a halt Thursday but will resume this morning, said Bob Beke, construction manager for the center.

The incident occurred less than two months after the death of a construction worker at the northeast chiller plant and parking deck construction site, near Cobb Residence Hall.

On Aug. 13, a man operating a bulldozer at the site was spreading fill material against one of the new foundation walls when he backed into another worker, killing him, said Bruce Runberg, associate vice chancellor for planning and construction.

Beke said the two fatalities are not the indication of a trend.

"It's just a coincidence," he said. "If you look back at all the construction on campus, you're not going to find many of these incidences. It's not anything that I see as a pattern."

Jones said Chandler Concrete and others are in the process of investigating Thursday's incident.

"Obviously, we are very concerned, and we want to know what happened," he said. "At this point we don't have any reason to believe that there was anything unsafe."

Heather Crews, public information officer at the N.C. Department of Labor, said construction worker deaths make up a large number of workplace fatalities in the state.

The Occupational Safety and Health Act passed by Congress in 1970 ensures that workers are provided a place of employment free from safety and health hazards.

The University and its contractors are working in cooperation with these laws, labor department officials say.

Ed Short, UNC's deputy manager of facilities management, said the University is being proactive to ensure that these incidents do not occur again.

In response to the deaths, facilities management officials are hosting a safety stand down Monday, where all contractors, subcontractors and vendors will stop work from 11 a.m. to noon and participate in safety meetings.

The meetings are intended to raise awareness of safety and to make sure that everyone is following contract guidelines, Runberg said.

"We are constantly striving to have the employees of these companies work safely."

 

Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.