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Officials investigate a fatal construction accident on Blue Diamond Road by the I-15 northbound on-ramp Tuesday, June 29, 2010.
By Tiffany Gibson, Kyle B. Hansen (contact) 
Published Tuesday, June 29, 2010 | 7:11 a.m.
Updated Tuesday, June 29, 2010 | 1:41 p.m.
Workers wait as officials investigate a fatal construction accident on Blue Diamond Road by the I-15 northbound on-ramp Tuesday, June 29, 2010.
Fatal Accident
UPDATED STORY: Coroner identifies man killed at I-15 construction site
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating a Tuesday morning construction accident in the south Las Vegas Valley that killed a 34-year-old operating engineer.
The Nevada Highway Patrol responded at 6:26 a.m. to the accident at the Blue Diamond Road and Interstate 15 interchange, but OSHA has taken over the investigation.
The operating engineer had been employed by Las Vegas Paving since March 2005. Two of the worker’s family members also work for the company, officials said.
OSHA wasn't releasing details Tuesday morning but Las Vegas Paving released a statement about the accident.
“We consider workplace safety to be priority one on all of our projects and have accordingly directed a 24-hour safety shutdown on this job while safety protocol and procedures are reviewed and reinforced with our employees,” Las Vegas Paving Attorney James M. Barker said.
The accident happened in a construction zone of the I-15 South Design-Build Project, which will widen the freeway from Tropicana Avenue to Silverado Ranch Boulevard.
The $246.5 million project began in February and is scheduled to end in March 2012. Crews are adding additional lanes to the road as well as connector-distributor roads along the side of the freeway and making improvements to interchanges.
A new detour was scheduled to go into effect Thursday at the site of today’s accident. Project officials planned to detour traffic going to I-15 from both directions of Blue Diamond Road onto temporary ramps for four months.
The detour was to allow for more extensive work on the Blue Diamond bridges, where a new flyover will eventually connect eastbound Blue Diamond to northbound I-15. Officials said the detour will likely be moved to next week.
On Friday, a Henderson man died at the intersection as a result of natural causes. Troopers said the man's white Nissan Altima was traveling east on Blue Diamond at about 5 p.m. when the vehicle left the road in a construction area at I-15. The vehicle hit a construction barricade, then went airborne and landed on construction materials.
The Clark County Coroner’s Office has determined that the Henderson man, 56-year-old Layne Brandhagen, died of a heart attack before the crash.
Three people died earlier this month in another car crash in a construction area when their car entered a closed ramp from the Las Vegas Beltway to I-15 and struck construction materials.
Obviously speed reduction signs aren't working,that is if they are being posted.For this car to be airborne...he was traveling at a very high speed.
I got on the 15 north bound at 6:45 this morning. I noticed the news helicopter hovering above and several NHP cars at the on-ramp. I then saw a construction worker leaning over and holding on to the bumper of a truck while a co-worker appeared to be consoling him. A few feet away at the base of a large tractor was a body covered with a sheet.
I wonder if the tractor driver accidently killed a co-worker.
Babyboomer, todays paper has a small story stating the accident on Friday with the white Nissan was because the driver suffered a fatal heart attack while driving.
Accidents are 100% avoidable.
Traffic staging and lane restrictions in Las Vegas on public works projects needs to reflect the conditions of the project and minor modifications to the work area and staged plans should be monitored by a designated traffic control supervisor (TSC).
Many contractors don't bid a TSC and rely solely on individuals who lack common sense and understand the ever changing job-site conditions where traffic flows, speeds, and driver stupidity require changes to the staged plans and work area to be changed. If public works and NDOT added a pay item to the bid where they pay for TSC, the public would benefit and contractors would be paid for providing a service that should be done. See Washington State bid forms and the rate of accidents on their work, few and far between.
great, so the contractors have the option of paying more for a supervisor who knows WTF they are doing OR they can leave it whomever at the site who makes it most convenient for themselves at that moment.
Drives me F'n crazy, the kind of foolishness we ignore and put up with.
Wtf was that last rambling comment about commish..
you and its2hot must be smokin the same stuff..
Funny how people can jump to conclusions without knowing not one fact first..how you can come up with all that crap with the little bit of information that was provided.
its2hot.....you're an idiot....20 bucks says that you're involved in an accident before your life is over. That's why there called accidents....they are not 100% avoidable. Just like stupid comments coming from your mouth are not avoidable.
P.S. if it's 2hot, then go back to Washington.
Oh yeah, and the bids here do include money for Traffic Control Systems, which is why you see barricades, for miles, as you drive up the I-15.
The fact is this article starts with the accident from this morning which appears to be a construction worker on a tractor accidently killing a co-worker, then it segues into the man who died of a heart attack while driving on Friday which caused him to drive into the construction site.
Neither story have anything to do with Traffic Control Systems.
shovel ready?
Las Vegas Paving sued to keep contracts where they weren't low bid because Fisher was dangerous and not safety conscious. I thought being union guaranteed worker's safety?
How tragic but 15 people get killed each day on the job in the USA. Over 5,600 died last year. What causes accidents many things not just one thing. Most road construction accidents happen because a hazard is not identified and they become a way of doing the job. The at-risk behavior which is usually produced by the enviroment a worker has to work in. The at-risk behavior is usually rehearsed between 800 to 1,000 times by various employees before an tragic event happens. Using leading indicators and not numbers to measure safety and being pro active is a true sign of a company that takes it's safety serious words do not cut it. Please keep in mind meeting the OSHA standards is minimal safety there is much more room to improve.If you want more information on how people are killed on the job each day go to www.weeklytoll.com Please everyone slow down when you see road construction be alert and do not take a risk your luck may be running out.
Lmao from some of your comments left.
All construction injuries are 100% avoidable; thinking otherwise is clearly a mind of stupidity and ignorance. To justify or even attempt to make such lame excuses proves a point, the stupidly and ignorance of certain people.
Surely bids contain traffic control items; contractors bid don't contain nor do contractors employ fulltime traffic control supervisor dedicated to each project managing the ever changing and challenging jobsite conditions. A majority of contractors are too cheap to include such costs or don't have the knowledge internally to manage such a task. Traffic control devices, striping, lane changes, all other aspects of working in any public right of way poses risk to the public and construction workers; WSDOT has figured this out and mandates this on all projects. WISHA is even worse, jail time.
What some of you fail to understand is knowledge is power, not knowing is no excuse. Look up WSDOT and get off your lazy bunger and spend some time and become educated in other regions and take their safety training classes. You'd be surprised just how safety is done is other areas of the USA and how to make your projects safe. You that think you know it all, lmao, ignorance and stupidly are why Las Vegas injury and death rates on construction projects is so high when 100% of these are 100% avoidable yet some are just too damn smart to learn anything new. Geez, take your head out the dark hole and smell some cleaner air, you're not that smart.
Barrier height plays no role is how automobiles get over a crash device and elevation changes where used? Pinning barriers to secure without movement, hum so many variables come into play when incidents occur. I would bet that if a forensic traffic study was done and the primary factors were calculated that just maybe project specifications might play a role and help to some insight. We all know how speed, distance, radiuses, etc" etc" all play a vital role in design applications for permanent traffic control, yet Frail is designed for what applications and intended for what purpose and when additional safety measures are required to avoid conditions where changes are needed to NDOT "Standard Specifications" verses project related "Special Provisions"and bid item list the owner is paying for.
Im very sorry for the loss of this young man and his family. After being in the constuction industry for more than 20 yrs, I can tell you that yes most accidents can be avoided, but sometimes workers make fatal mistakes by there own negligence. In this case, the female operator of the Loader did not see the worker exit his scrapper and in the process of backing up , crushed him. LV Paving safety works very hard to make sure all workers go home safe every night. Please dont bash the safety department, workers also make mistakes in the field that affect the whole company.
its2hot, you don't know what you are talking about. NDOT has required a traffic control supervisor on all projects for almost 20 years, it's in EVERY contract. Funny you admonish other posters for not knowing the specification in other states, yet you don't even bother to research the specifications in Nevada or for this project specifically. Aside from Las Vegas Paving having a Traffic Control Supervisor for this project, NDOT also is continually inspecting the traffic control on the project.
goingbust....please show some respect for the deceased and his family.
Glad they have an attorney on this...unless he was DWI, it is no fault..whether he set brake or not. Maybe it didn't work...
I think operating engineers might go on ground to look for hazards, go to the bathroom, etc. Maybe they should be chained to their seats?
Why isn't the Sun going for a 2nd Pulitzer and workplace safety for Federal and State funded construction projects?
The way I understand it, he was doing an inspection on his equipment prior to using it when he was backed over. Guns, you might have some awe inspiring talent or x-ray vision to perform a pre-use inspection from the seat, but most folks actually like to look at what they are inspecting.
This is a tragedy, my thoughts and prayers go out to the grieving family.
All the road projects are death traps... they try to squeeze a circle into a square. Bad things will and do happen.
first off if i was in this position and this was my husband i definately would not want a picture like this on the internet..i have lost all respect for you news people, you should not take pictures of things like this and put it p.! just like the helicopters abover when this was going on! YOU habe no respect your just hungry stupid news people trying to butt into everyones business! i am disgusted! in another thought my heart and prayers are with this family! i did not know them well..but enough to hurt for his wife! please guys watch out when your driving..slow down if it takes longer to get where your going its okay your probably saving a life..this is such a tradgedy and i am still trying to grip my mind around it!
If you don't know what you are talking about, then just don't say anything at all. I know the workers that were on site and I know the wife and details. Please have respect for the family. She may one day read these stupid comments. How would you like to hear that there was an accident and you try calling your husband over and over and over again and he's not answering and then you get a call from your boss telling you to park your truck, there's been an accident. How would you like to tell your 5 year old that their daddy isn't coming home. Yes, this was an accident. He stepped out to put some flags on the ground. Get a grip people and put your foot in your mouths if you don't have anything good to say. Don't try and come up with solutions on what coulda woulda shoulda happened. Leave that up to the companies because what I see here is a bunch of CRAP. Thank you.
Neiman1:
Local 3 and local 12 contain many worthless operators for the most part. These unions have allowed the dumbest of the dumb to join their union and journey out well before the member is even close to being qualified.
Here is an example union operator: last week we requested a 10 year journeyman to operate PC3500 Excavator, they sent a 15 year man. Within 5 seconds, he was fired for not being qualified. We requested a Topcon GPS grade checker with 10 years of experience, they sent a journeyman, he could understand and missed half the work needed to conform to the contract grades and had no clue how to turn on GPS so he did his layout manually. In either case this is considered standard in the industry and we're forced to pay this so called journeyman their dispatched pay. The moral is, unions don't offer contractors better or safer personal, they offer personal who claim to know what they they're doing and they're paid a very good wages for being unqualified.
If a company hasn't provided adequate training and provides proof of that training then that company might be in the same boat as others have been. Willful failure to provide employee training before employee operates said equipment and provide proof of training where employee signs off and they acknowledge the training was provided by employer. If an employer relies on any union then employer might be found to be negligent. The unions provide little training and most of the journeyman of today are worthless operators that have no right to be on any piece of equipment. We go through many journeymen before we find 1 qualified journeyman operator.
Recently, there was a person operating a D6 dozer and said person exited the cab and left the dozer in reverse, that person was killed when dozer went backwards where said person was pinned between the tracks and tank. Another recent incident where a 140 blade operator backed over a grade checker and the grade checker was killed. In both cases, the company was unable to provide proof that the company provided their union employees training.
We now provide training to employees and provide operating and training aid cards visible to employee on each piece of equipment for employee to read as needed.
The issue that will be heard by the courts if action is filed, the insurance company finds that the companies acted outside the scope of the insurance policy and the contractors were negligent therefore no payment is made by the insurance companies.
Let's see how OSHA rules on this case. Hopefully the truth is told and incidents like this one don't ever happen again and the company provides safer jobsite practices. In my humble opinion, this was clearly avoidable.
Our prayers with this family.