Florida Firefighters Find Worker That Fell 18 Floors Down Elevator Shaft In Hollywood

HOLLYWOOD -- A construction worker seeking shelter from a morning downpour was killed Tuesday when he fell through an uncovered elevator shaft from the 19th floor of the Ocean Palms, a beachfront high-rise under construction.

Just after 8 a.m., Jose Altamirano, 42, of Miami, and about two dozen other workers sought cover from a rain shower, said Matt Phillips, a spokesman for the Hollywood Fire-Rescue Department.

Several workers said Altamirano ran to get behind a steel panel, and then slipped and fell on a plywood deck near the elevator shaft, according to Daniel Whiteman, president of Coastal Construction Services LLC, the project's contractor.

Fire-rescue workers found his body near the elevator pit, Phillips said.

How he slipped through the elevator remains a puzzle to investigators because it was secured with a guardrail.

"It looks like it was an accident," Phillips said.

The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupation Safety and Health Administration is investigating the incident, according to the agency's local director, Luis R. Santiago.

OSHA doesn't keep statistics on elevator shaft accidents, but Santiago said they are not unusual. He said installing guardrails and floor planks are ways to help prevent elevator shaft accidents.

Altamirano, an ironworker, was employed by G.T. Builders of Pompano Beach, a subcontractor.

"We are extremely upset at this loss of human life. Our heart and prayers go to his family at this time," said Whiteman, adding his company has full-time safety directors working on construction sites.

This is the second construction death in Hollywood in about four years, Phillips said.

In February 2000, Steve Myers, 43, was installing skylights on the Westin Diplomat Resort and Spa when he slipped on glass and fell almost 70 feet to the ground. He later died at Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood.

It was the second construction fatality for Coastal Construction in less than two years, Whiteman said.

Last year, he said, a man working for a subcontractor died after building material fell on him on a Coastal Construction site in Aventura in north Miami-Dade County. He said OSHA did not fine his company because no safety regulations were violated.

In August 2002, however, the company was fined $13,200 for eight work safety violations.

Tony Di Roberto, president of G.T. Builders, said this is the most serious incident his company has had since it opened in 1981.

"We are a very safe company," Di Roberto said.

The Ocean Palms is being developed as a 40-story luxury condominium.

The $76 million building at 3010 S. Ocean Drive is just north of the Diplomat and is expected to open in November 2005, Whiteman said.