4 Injured, Trolleys Halted as Downtown Walkway Falls

A covered wooden walkway next to a downtown San Diego construction site collapsed Thursday afternoon, injuring four pedestrians passing beneath it. Trolley service was disrupted for 45 minutes.

The temporary passageway--which served as a protective barricade and stretched along half a block of C Street between 5th and 6th avenues--apparently toppled under the weight of metal scaffolding supports and planks leaning against one of its plywood walls.

“Evidently, they had a lot of this stuff stacked up along the length of the walkway, and it just fell over,” said John Hermanson, area director for the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration in San Diego.

Tumbled ‘Like Dominoes’

San Diegan Terry Noel, 33, said he was on the northern side of C Street when he saw the walkway collapse “like dominoes” about 12:45. Noel said the western end gave way first and the entire structure crumbled within seconds.

Four people passing through the walkway suffered minor injuries, mostly cuts to the head, and three of them were treated at hospitals, San Diego Fire Capt. Dean Reid said, adding that all of those injured managed to free themselves from the wooden wreckage before firefighters and police arrived.

“I’m surprised we didn’t have more injuries, or some people trapped,” Reid said, noting that C Street is heavily traveled by business people, particularly during lunch hour.

One of those taken to the hospital, Francis Favor, 34, of San Diego, said he was in the walkway near the eastern end when it collapsed and struck him on the head. Favor said he crawled out of an opening at that end. He suffered a large cut on the left side of his head.

Francis Johnson, 28, a city maintenance worker who was picking up trash, said he and several bystanders ran to the structure when it collapsed and tried to hold up the boards so those underneath could escape.

Johnson, who works on C Street, said he had noticed many planks and the thick, metal scaffolding supports leaning against the southern side of the wooden passageway earlier in the day. By the time police arrived, those materials had been moved and leaned against the wall of the old Lerner Shops building at 5th Avenue and C Street. The building is being remodeled.

Although the wreckage was confined to the sidewalk on the southern side of C Street, emergency vehicles blocked the road for about 45 minutes, preventing trolley cars from passing.

Scaffolding Firm Blamed

Ron Gordines, the contractor in charge of the remodeling, blamed the collapse on the company that supplied him with the scaffolding. Gordines, president of RG Construction Co., said Statewide Scaffold delivered the planks and metal braces 30 minutes before the collapse and leaned them against the walkway.

“That was negligence on their part,” Gordines said. “That was just too much weight.”

Officials at Statewide Scaffold could not be reached for comment.

Gordines said the scaffolding was to be erected today by workers who are re-covering the stucco surface of the building, which will reopen in March as a retail complex known as the Fashion Depot. The building is being purchased and redeveloped by Ronny Maman, who intends to use part it to house his discount women’s clothing store, Price Breakers.

Because no workers at the site were injured, Hermanson said, OSHA will not conduct an investigation into the collapse.

“If any employees had been hurt or exposed to a hazard, we would have jurisdiction,” Hermanson said. “But this is really more of a public-safety question.”

Police also will not investigate unless evidence of “criminal neglect” is detected, spokesman Bill Robinson said.

Walkway Rebuilt

Gordines said the city’s Building Inspection Department, which issued permits for the walkway because it encroaches on the public right of way, examined the site several hours after the collapse. He said inspectors planned to return this morning to check the safety of the walkway, which has been rebuilt.

City officials said it is unclear whether the collapse of the structure, designed to protect passers-by from debris and other fallout from the construction, resulted from any permit violations.

“The (city building) code says the barricade must be solid and substantially built, not less than 8 feet in height, and must extend the entire length of the building site,” said Jack Brandais, a building inspection spokesman. “It says such protection must be maintained in place and kept in good order for the entire length of the work. But that’s about all the standards that are set.”