A 30-year-old Arizona man fell 50 feet to his death at a Marlborough jobsite on Sunday, tumbling from an elevated beam while working on new ice rinks for the New England Sports Center.
The man, whose name has not been released, was working for Colorado Springs-based Alpha Steel Erectors, according to the Massachusetts Coalition For Occupational Safety and Health, or MassCOSH.
The death “also serves as a tragic reminder that every employer has the responsibility for creating a worksite free of deadly fall risks for their workers so that events like this no longer take place,” MassCOSH said in a statement.
The U.S. Occupational Safety & Health Administration is working with the Marlborough Police Department on an inspection to determine whether or not any workplace standards were violated, according to OSHA spokesman Ted Fitzgerald and the Marlborough police. The inspection is likely to take several weeks, he said.
According to a report from MassCOSH released April 27, workplace deaths in Massachusetts hit a 10-year high in 2016. A total of 62 workers died on the job or from workplace injuries last year; 17 of those people died from falls, slips, and trips on the job, according to MassCOSH.
The New England Sports Center is adding two new ice rinks, scheduled to open in August, to its facility. More than 1 million people visit the center every year.
