Two San Francisco Workers Crushed To Death By Granite Slabs
A San Francisco granite company that says it had not a single accident in 29 years of operation ran out of luck Friday, as two of its workers were killed by falling granite slabs. The names of the two deceased Galaxy Granite employees were not released, but one was a manager on the site.
The 911 call came in at 10:05 am on Friday, according to San Francisco Fire Department spokesperson Mindy Talmadge. She said the call from Galaxy Granite at 1525 Cortland Avenue in San Francisco reported that 10 heavy granite slabs had fallen, trapping workers underneath.
The fire department made it to the scene just three minutes later. And it took only five minutes to break through the slabs and remove the workers. But even though the San Francisco rescue team acted quickly, the manager was already dead.
In fact, the owner of Granite Galaxy narrowly escaped death himself, according to his wife who spoke to ABC 7 News in San Francisco.
The second worker, who was struck by the corner of one falling slab, was immediately transported to a nearby hospital, but did not recover from his injuries. The manager was trapped beneath one granite slab, with only his head protruding. But the weight of the falling slab was enough to kill him.
The slabs were shipped by ocean liner from overseas. On board the ship, they were stored leaned up against each other, on wooden A-frames. However, according to early reports, one of those frames shifted or broke during the transit at sea.
When workers opened the shipping container in which the massive granite slabs were stored, the deadly slabs toppled directly at the workers.
The two deceased employees had been with Galaxy Granite for between four and five years, according to another employee, who spoke to San Francisco local CBS News.
OSHA, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, is now investigating how the San Francisco tragedy happened. CBS verified that OSHA had no records of any previous accident at the site.
