Two Men Fatally Injured on Hanover Job Site
In a tragic accident involving an oversized generator falling from the crane by which it was being moved, two New Jersey men were killed on a job site in Hanover. The causes for the accident were not immediately clear, and the accident remains under investigation by the Morris County Prosecutor’s office and representatives of the U.S. Department of Labor.
The two men were working on the future Whippany Fire Company Headquarters along Troy Hills Road, which, prior to the accident, had an anticipated completion date of spring of 2016. A crane operator, employed by City Erectors of West Caldwell, was moving a 10,000-lb generator overhead while the two men worked on the job site below. For reasons that investigators are trying to determine, one of the straps holding the generator aloft either unraveled or snapped, sending the generator to the ground. Two men working in a ditch below were fatally injured by the falling generator. Joseph Donahue, 25, of Montague, was killed instantly. Robert Derkacs Jr., 45, of Vernon, received rib, leg, and lung injuries. The man was transported to Morristown Medical Center, where he passed away later that evening.
Of the four contractors operating on the fire company job site, all had been the subject of complaints to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), and three of the four had previously been fined. Donahue had been an employee of Industrial Process & Equipment, which paid fines to OSHA in the amount of $2,100 in October of 2012 for worksite violations. Boz Electric of Vernon, Derkacs’ employer, paid OSHA $2,625 in fines in May of 2010 for two separate violations. City Erectors had been the subject of an OSHA complaint in November of 2014, but no fines were issued. Finally, the general contractor on the Troy Hills Road site, Precision Building of Bridgewater, paid out $2,100 in fines to the federal workplace safety monitor for citations issued in 2009.
If you or a loved one has been injured on a construction worksite or in an industrial accident in New Jersey, seek out experienced legal help to assist you in obtaining the compensation you’re owed for your injuries by contacting the experienced and compassionate Wayne workplace injury attorneys at Massood Law Group for a no-cost consultation on your claims, at 844-4MB-HURT.
