Aggie Tragedy
Mystery builds around falling death at Texas A&M stadium: Federal agency gets involved
The investigation continues at Texas A&M's University Kyle Field in the wake of a 25-year-old construction worker falling to his death Tuesday morning.
Though details are hazy, Angel Garcia was working on a spiral pedestrian ramp at the northeast side of the stadium, which is undergoing a massive $450 million renovation.
At 11:30 a.m., the Dallas-area resident fell from the fourth level of the concrete ramp and was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he later died of his injuries.
Garcia's death comes nearly half a year after five workers were seriously injured during a collapse at A&M's new equine center.
The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) — along with university police and primary contractor Manhattan-Vaughan Construction — will continue an investigation that could last as long as six months, according to officials.
It remains unclear how the incident and OSHA analysis will affect the stadium's first phase of construction, which was scheduled to be complete by early September for A&M's first home football game against Lamar University next season. A live-feed of construction progress on the stadium's website has been disconnected since Tuesday.
Past troubles
According to the Bryan-College Station Eagle, Garcia's employer Lindamood Demolition has faced OSHA citations as recently as July, when the company failed to meet federal requirements for preparing a demolition site in Wichita Falls. Originally fined $4,200, Lindamood reached an settlement with the agency for $2,000.
Manhattan Construction — one half of the Kyle Field building team — also met the wrath of OSHA during its 2009 work on Cowboys Stadium in Dallas.
There the company racked up $8,000 in fines for not enforcing employees to wear protective gear and for not protecting workers from falling through open areas like skylights. Manhattan, which built BBVA Compass stadium, eventually secured a $4,000 settlement.
Garcia's death comes nearly half a year after five workers were seriously injured during a roof collapse at A&M's new $80 million equine center. An OSHA investigation is pending on that accident as well.
