barclays center roof 1 22015

A worker died yesterday unloading massive beams for the construction of the green roof at Barclays. Peter Zepf, 52, was transferring joists from a truck onto a hoist and four fell on him around 1 in the afternoon, crushing him to death almost instantly. Work at Barclays has stopped while investigators look into what happened. Two possibilities are that the truck driver could have released the beams at the wrong moment, or the worker accidentally pressed an emergency release button.

“My signal man was crushed,” a fellow worker told the New York Daily News. “The load was top heavy, the truck driver unhooked it without being told, (and) it toppled right on top of him. I checked his pulse: he was there for half a second, and then he was gone.”

NY1 said, “Investigators believe the victim may have accidentally hit the emergency release button, causing the load to come down on him.”

“We are all devastated by what happened,” said Greenland Forest City in a prepared statement. “All of us at Greenland Forest City Ratner Partners and Barclays Center extend our most heartfelt condolences to the worker’s family and friends.”

Iron Worker at Barclays Center Crushed to Death by Steel Beams: Police [NY Daily News]
Barclays Ironworker Crushed to Death by Beams [BK Paper]
Construction Worker Killed While Working on Barclays Center Green Roof [NY1]
Photo by Andrew Fine


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