Cal/OSHA Says Sony Impeded Inquiry

State regulators said Thursday that Sony Pictures is thwarting an investigation into the March death of a crew worker on the Downey set of its big-budget feature film “Spider-Man.”

Tim Holcombe, 45, of Monrovia, died when a crane toppled onto his head while he and other crew members were constructing a set at the former Rockwell International aerospace plant, 20 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles.

The state Division of Occupational Safety and Health went to court earlier this month to subpoena company records in connection with the accident, Cal/OSHA spokesman Dean Fryer said. But the documents have not been turned over yet, he said.

Sony Pictures spokesman Steve Hagey disputed the state’s contention that the company has been uncooperative and criticized Cal/OSHA’s methods.

“They are turning the facts upside-down,” Hagey said. “From the beginning, we offered to cooperate fully with Cal/OSHA and the Los Angeles district attorney’s office. We voluntarily made crew members available to the district attorney’s office for interviews, and these interviews were held.”

Hagey said Sony offered to do the same for state regulators, who instead issued subpoenas and sent process servers to crew members’ homes.

The documents are needed to determine the employment relationship between Holcombe and Sony, whether proper training was provided to employees and whether any maintenance logs were kept showing problems with equipment, Fryer said.

The March 6 accident occurred on the sprawling parking lot at the former Rockwell plant.

Workers were lifting a 15-by-25-foot metal sign framework to the top of a building facade when the framework shifted, causing a crane to fall onto a basket carrying two welders, one of whom was Holcombe.