4 Visitors Injured in Accident at Museum

A metal scaffolding brace fell about 35 feet onto a line of people waiting to view an exhibition of paintings from the Soviet Union at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on Thursday, injuring four persons.

Los Angeles Fire Department Capt. John Miller said it was “very fortunate” that nobody was killed by the accident, which occurred shortly after noon while workers were adjusting scaffolding on a museum expansion project. “It could have been a lot worse,” he said.

Injured were Jack Handford, 60, of Los Angeles and his brother and sister-in-law, Robert, 55, and Ann Handford, 52, here on vacation from the St. Louis suburb of St. Peters. They were taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where a hospital spokesman said their cuts and bruises were treated and then they were released.

Treated and Released

A fourth victim, Dorothy Dodson, 60, of Rancho Palos Verdes, was treated for cuts and bruises at Westside Hospital and then released, a spokeswoman said.

The accident occurred in the new Times Mirror Central Court, where about 60 feet of scaffolding was being used by workers to finish construction of columns in the courtyard.

About 6,000 people a day have been forming long lines next to the courtyard construction to see the 41 works in the exhibit, “Impressionist to Early Modern Paintings From the U.S.S.R.,” on display in the Frances and Armand Hammer Building.

The last 100 feet or so of the line forms along one wall of the Hammer building and next to the four-story, $35.3-million Robert O. Anderson Building for modern and contemporary art, due to be completed in November. The Times Mirror Central Court is between the Hammer and Anderson structures.

Separating museum visitors from the work is an eight-foot construction fence--but no overhead protection. Although none of the scaffolding and construction work is directly over the line, it is a few feet away on the other side of the temporary wooden wall.

Fire Capt. Miller said the brace, consisting of two 10-foot-long metal rods, was apparently dropped by a worker and then may have ricocheted off another piece of scaffolding, flying over the temporary wooden wall and onto the victims.

Just minutes after the accident and the removal of the victims, museum officials allowed the public to resume lining up, and the construction work, temporarily stopped, continued.

The light gray carpeting at the entrance to the exhibit was stained by blood from the victims.

‘A Freakish Accident’

“We didn’t want to stop the museum’s exhibition program and its activities,” said Pam Leavitt, the museum’s spokeswoman. “It should not have happened, but it happened. It was a freakish incident.”

Guards were immediately cautioned by museum officials to say nothing to reporters. Construction workers also declined comment on the accident.

Leavitt said a wooden canopy would be constructed Thursday night to protect the public from possible future mishaps during construction of the Anderson wing and the Times Mirror Central Court.

An assistant museum director, James Peoples, said in a statement that museum officials told New York-based Turner Construction Co., the prime contractor, that “we needed to use this particular door” for the exhibit and that Turner was instructed to “develop the safest way to accommodate” the public.”

‘Said It Was OK’

“We were assured by Turner that the (wooden) fence was within the building code,” Peoples said. “Since there was no work (going on) overhead, they said it was OK.”

No other door was considered for entrance to the exhibit because “we didn’t want people to stand in the sun for a long time, and this seemed to be the best” entrance, Leavitt said.

Turner project executive Charlie Koch of Turner’s Los Angeles office said the project conformed to all safety rules.

“To the best of Turner’s knowledge, all barricades and scaffolding were installed per Los Angeles City, Los Angeles County and (federal) code requirements,” he said in a telephone interview.

Times staff writers George R. Fry and Nieson Himmel contributed to this article.