The death of a Payson construction worker who was crushed by a falling wall Monday adds to the already heavy caseload for Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigators.
Edward George Bean, 25, was working at the Foothill Athletic Club in Provo when a 15-foot-high concrete wall he was attempting to remove fell on top of him.Bean's death marks the fourth Utahn killed in industrial accidents in the past three weeks.
- Clifford Clegg, 40, American Fork, died July 21 after being buried for several minutes under a stack of vertical bars at Salt Lake International Airport.
Another construction worker, John Kelley, 41, Magna, was hospitalized after he was knocked over by the bars and pinned.
- Clair L. Syndergaard, 59, Grantsville, was installing cable at Buckley Air National Guard Base in Colorado on July 22 when he fell from a 60-foot communications tower.
- Kenneth Aman, 22, was killed July 23 after falling 40 feet into a pit at Kennecott Corp. The 22-year-old Salt Lake man was flown to an area hospital where he died a short time later.
OSHA officials shy away from citing a trend - saying the summer building season means more people are working in potentially dangerous circumstances.
"It's been a bad two or three weeks, but there's really no way to explain it," said OSHA compliance supervisor Gary Padley. "The accidents have all been isolated incidents. There's just a lot of construction going on this time of year."
Padley said the nature of the recent deaths is as varied as their location but added, "Oftentimes industrial-related fatalities are the result of workers not wearing appropriate personal protection."
Investigations of the Utah-area accidents are still pending, said Padley.
Syndergaard's death is being examined by Colorado industrial officials.