Construction Worker Killed in Plunge at Van Nuys Sound Stage

A construction worker plunged 40 feet to his death Thursday morning while working near the ceiling inside a sound stage in Van Nuys.

After calling the Los Angeles Fire Department, fellow workers transported victim Augustine Ontiveros of Van Nuys on the back of a pickup truck across a muddy driveway to the front of the site at 16829 Saticoy St., where he was given CPR by fire officials, said Matt McKnight of the Fire Department.

McKnight said Ontiveros, 54, was in “traumatic full arrest” when fire officials arrived. He was taken to Northridge Hospital Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead from head injuries at 11:25 a.m.

The California division of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating the incident.

Richard Stephens, spokesman for Cal/OSHA, said Ontiveros was employed by special effects equipment firm Hollywood Mobile Systems Inc., which was cited for various safety violations at another site in 1996.

After Cal/OSHA received a complaint, investigators found “several violations of California standards,” Stephens said.

He said the two most serious citations given the company were for unguarded pulleys and circular ripsaws.

One of the less serious violations involved a lack of guardrails at elevated locations “that would keep people from falling,” Stephens said. The company was fined $650 for the violations, according to Cal/OSHA records.

Officials with Hollywood Mobile Systems declined to comment.