A 21-year-old male construction worker died Tuesday morning after falling from the roof of the new building for the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the Downtown campus.
Ian Delmar was assisting a crane when he fell into a hole that was about 80-feet deep shortly before 9 a.m., said Detective Stacie Derge of Phoenix police.
The man fell from the seventh floor of the building located at the intersection of First and Fillmore streets, said Charlie Boyd, a spokesman for Sundt Construction, Inc.
Sundt is leading the construction on the new Cronkite building.
"We know he fell through a ventilator shaft," Boyd said. "We know the ventilator shafts are normally covered and marked. [But] we don't know what happened in this case."
It looked as if the man was walking backwards when he fell through the shaft, said Capt. Victor Rangel of the Phoenix Fire Department.
"The shaft was covered with plywood and well marked," Rangel said.
Fire officials attempted to resuscitate the man while they transported him to St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center, Rangel added.
Delmar was working for Top Flite Construction, who had been subcontracted by Sundt, Boyd said.
This accident was the first of such a serious nature in Downtown campus projects, Boyd said.
"All the others have been very minor," he said.
The project was closed following the accident and work won't resume until Thursday, Boyd said.
"Our first concern of course is to determine what caused the accident, that's always a primary importance," he said.
Before work begins Thursday morning, Sundt will provide grief counseling for employees, Boyd added.
Both Sundt and the Occupational Health & Safety Administration will be conducting investigations to determine any lapses in safety procedures, Boyd said.
"We're obviously very focused on safety and we have not had a serious accident involving any of our own people in quite awhile," he said.
Sundt doesn't track statistics related to subcontracted employees as thoroughly as their own employees, Boyd said. But it had been awhile since he remembered a subcontractor fatality, he added.
When signing a subcontractor, they are required to adhere to Sundt or OSHA's safety procedures — whichever are stricter, Boyd said.
ASU officials deferred questions to Sundt, but did issue a statement.
"We were sad to hear the news and have offered condolences to the family," said Leah Hardesty, spokeswoman for ASU.
The Cronkite building will be six-stories and 110 feet tall, according to the ASU Web site.
The $71 million project will span 223,000 square feet and is scheduled to open in fall 2008.
Reach the reporter at matthew.g.stone@asu.edu
