Bad Week for Construction Workers

On the South Fork, where construction is booming, there were several accidents at building sites over the past week.

Five men were injured, four of them airlifted to Stony Brook University Hospital, in three separate incidents.

On July 30 at about 2:50 p.m., two workers fell three stories into a basement at a construction site at 11 Wills Point Road in Montauk. East Hampton Town Police Capt. Chris Anderson said the pair were standing on scaffolding when a board snapped.

The Montauk Fire Department’s heavy rescue squad was called to help remove the men from the basement, and the county’s two Medevac helicopters were summoned. One helicopter, based in Westhampton, landed at the nearby Montauk firehouse on Flamingo Road. The other, which flew from Islip, met a Montauk ambulance at the East Hampton Airport.

The two men, both from New Jersey, have since been released from the hospital.

In East Hampton Village on Friday, two construction workers fell 15 feet off the roof of 32 Mill Hill Lane when “scaffolding shifted,” according to Village Police Chief Gerard Larsen.

One man was airlifted to Stony Brook after a Medevac helicopter landed at the East Hampton Airport. The other was taken to Southampton Hospital, as there was only one Medevac available at the time. Their injuries did not appear life-threatening,” Chief Larsen said.

A fifth worker was airlifted on Monday after he was “crushed” by a forklift’s load, being moved on Jacob’s Way in Sagaponack, said Southampton Town Police Detective Sgt. Lisa Costa. The forklift was moving pallets of ceramic tiles.

The 21-year-old, from East Moriches, suffered “head and other bodily injuries,” the detective said. Emergency medical technicians from the Bridgehampton Fire Department and the Sag Harbor Volunteer Ambulance Corps treated the man and called for advanced life support from the Southampton Volunteer Ambulance squad. The helicopter landed at the ball field next to the Bridgehampton Firehouse.

The man was listed in stable condition at Stony Brook. “That’s the good news here,” Detective Costa said. Her department is investigating.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the federal agency charged with the enforcement of safety at work sites, was called to investigate all three incidents. OSHA, which did not respond to a request for comment, inspects construction sites at random.

The two sites in East Hampton Town had valid building permits for new construction. It was unclear as of yesterday where on Jacob’s Way the tile was being delivered.