2 Workers Are Injured in 30-Foot Fall : Platform Gives Way at Hotel Construction Site in Costa Mesa

Two carpenters fell 30 feet to the base of an elevator shaft Thursday when a platform collapsed beneath them at a Costa Mesa construction site.

Both men were in serious condition Thursday night at Fountain Valley Regional Hospital.

Investigation Begun

An investigator for the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which routinely investigates industrial accidents, was summoned to the site at 3050 Bristol St., where construction of a seven-story Red Lion Inn is under way. A spokesman for the agency said that a preliminary investigation had not revealed any “flagrant” safety violations but that he would not discuss specifics of the case.

According to Costa Mesa Fire Department officials, foreman Paul Harris and Rod Simon, who were thought to be 35 and 21 respectively, were working on the concrete walls inside the elevator shaft about 10:30 a.m. when the wooden platform they were standing on at about the second-floor level collapsed. The second story is the highest completed floor of the building.

Paramedic Herb Ohde said that the platform landed on the men at the base of the elevator shaft, but that other construction workers were able to remove it before rescuers arrived.

W. Keith Chilcott, project manager for the hotel being built by Jones Brothers Construction Corp. of Beverly Hills, would not discuss the incident.

Harris and Simon, among an estimated 50 subcontractors on the project, were treated in the seven-foot-deep “pit” of the elevator shaft and removed by paramedics within 15 minutes, Ohde said.

Both in Serious Condition

Simon suffered back injuries and facial cuts, a hospital spokeswoman said. She added that he was in serious but stable condition late Thursday. Harris, who had experienced breathing difficulty at the scene, was treated for bruising on his left chest and abdomen and was in serious condition Thursday night.