Worker Killed by Collapsed Wall

Christina Cole

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At a major redevelopment project in downtown Durham, a construction worker, 35, was killed in a fatal construction accident.

The worker was on the inside of the old offices of Liggett & Myers Tobacco Co. when a brick wall collapsed, crushing him. The building is one of seven vintage structures being rehabilitated for shops.

According to police, the worker had only worked at the site for just a few days. The collapse happened at 10:40am and he was pronounced dead at the scene. No other injuries were reported.

A spokesmen for developer Blue Devil Partners, headed by former Duke University basketball stars Brian Davis and Christian Laettner, referred calls about the fatal accident to its construction contractor, Barnhill Contracting Co. A call to Barnhill was not returned.

Founded in Tarboro, Barnhill is one of the South's largest construction contractors, with more than 1,300 North Carolina employees. It is also one of the contractors building Raleigh's downtown convention center. A Barnhill worker was killed in Raleigh in October when an asphalt truck backed over him on a city street repaving project.

The worker who died Tuesday was employed by a subcontractor on the Durham project, Big Dog Demolition Inc., according to police. Calls to Big Dog's offices in Raleigh and Charlotte were not returned.

In May 2005, Big Dog was cited for 10 serious safety violations after an inspector with the State Department of Labor made an unannounced visit to one of the sites. The company was issued fines that totaled $4375 but they negotiated with the state to have the amount of violations downgraded to five and the fines taken down to $1,750, according to federal records.

The Durham Police Department and the state Labor Department are investigating the death.

Along with logging and commercial fishing, construction work routinely tops lists of the nation's most dangerous jobs, with 29 fatalities in North Carolina last year.

Heather Crews, a spokeswoman for the Labor Department, said inspectors would check reports that the wall where Pilgrim was working was not adequately reinforced before demolition began.