Worker Dies on Subway Project

A subway worker fell 50 feet to his death in Universal City early Friday, raising new questions about job safety on Metro Rail’s construction program, the region’s biggest public works project.

The 33-year-old carpenter worked for Tutor-Saliba-Perini, the same contractor fined for violating job safety laws after one of its laborers was crushed by a half-ton bucket in Hollywood earlier this year. The two deaths were the first in the $6.1-billion subway project’s 10-year history.

The latest accident is under investigation by the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health, the Los Angeles Police Department and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates Metro Rail.

Officials said the worker, Eleazar Montes, had climbed up scaffolding near the top of the subway station under construction across from Universal Studios to begin removing concrete forms when he lost his grip or balance, fell and hit his head.

Ron Tutor, a partner in Tutor-Saliba-Perini, said the worker apparently unhooked his safety belt “for whatever reason . . . and when he unhooked is when he fell.”

Officials could not say whether any safety rules were violated. Construction was stopped for the day and the scene was cordoned off with yellow police tape.

“We’re brokenhearted,” Tutor said. “Deaths happen in our business. They’re tragic.”

Mayor Richard Riordan, who heads the MTA board, issued a statement expressing sympathy to the Montes family and calling for an outside safety review of the subway construction site.

“While I understand that worker safety policies were apparently being followed, I want reassurance that the level of worker safety awareness policies among contractors is as high as possible,” Riordan said.

MTA officials have said the safety record of the subway project compares favorably with public works projects around the country, citing the Washington subway in which 17 workers were killed during construction.

Still, acting MTA chief Linda Bohlinger said the second death in six months “raises serious questions regarding the worker safety awareness policies of our contractors.”

A consultant to the federal government, which is helping pay for the subway project, recently expressed concern about an “increasing trend” in injuries for the first three months of this year along the Hollywood to North Hollywood subway extension.

The consultant noted “significant improvement” in April and said: “Although recent negative trends are of concern, we continue to believe that Merto Construction . . . is committed to the pursuit of its safety program.”

MTA officials could not explain the increase. “You’ve got to realize that construction is extremely hazardous work,” a spokesman said. “It’s just like driving on the freeway--you can’t always control what everybody else is doing around you.”

Records show that Tutor-Saliba-Perini’s time lost to injury rate was 3.9 per 200,000 work hours for the Universal City station through June--above the 1.5 for all contractors along the North Hollywood leg of the project, but less than the national average of 4.2 on heavy construction projects.

An MTA official said the builder still could qualify for a controversial safety bonus if it finishes the job relatively free of injury.

Tutor said he considered the 3.9 rate “pretty good.”

Cal/OSHA inspectors last visited the Universal City station site April 22 after a ladder fell with a worker on it. The inspectors issued a $5,000 citation for an unsecured ladder.

The MTA board recently ordered a review of its safety program by an outside expert. The agency employs 13 safety engineers who check construction sites on a rotating basis.

The action came after the February death of Jaime Pasillas, 52, who was killed when a refuse bin being hauled out of a Hollywood subway tunnel broke free of a chain and crushed him.

Tutor-Saliba-Perini’s lost-time injury rate for the Hollywood station where Pasillas died was 4.7 through June--above the 2.6 for all contractors along the Hollywood stretch of the subway project. MTA officials pointed out that the rate has dropped considerably from 10.2 for the first segment of the subway project, in downtown Los Angeles.

Cal-OSHA cited Tutor-Saliba-Perini for 14 mostly serious violations of worker safety laws and imposed fines of $70,500 in concluding that the contractor used a substandard chain for the heavy load that killed Pasillas. Tutor is appealing the fines.

Until this year, the most serious injuries on the subway project involved three workers who were seriously burned in a 1994 tunnel explosion under Vermont Avenue (the MTA and a contractor recently agreed to pay the workers $12.3 million) and a worker whose leg was amputated in a 1995 accident in the tunnel under Hollywood Boulevard.

At the construction site, Eric Narcho, who described himself as a friend of Montes, said the project was as safe as any construction project could be. Narcho called his friend a safe worker who put in long hours and enjoyed his job. Officials said Montes was single. His parents live in Los Angeles.

“He would give you the shirt off his back,” Narcho said. “Yesterday he invited me out for a beer. I said, ‘I don’t have any money,’ and he said, ‘You can buy me one tomorrow.’

“Well, tomorrow is today and Eleazar’s not here anymore.”