An accident at a Sunnyvale construction site has prompted a wrongful death lawsuit against “Level 10 Construction, two subcontractors, and the property owner” in charge of overseeing the site where a construction worker fell to his death. The lawsuit itself was filed by the man’s wife, Irma Vargas, in Santa Clara County Superior Court, and is seeking damages for “emotional distress, wrongful death, negligent survival and premises liability from Level 10 Construction, Webcor Builders, Alamillo Rebar Inc. and Central Wolfe LLC.”
An accident at a Sunnyvale construction site has prompted a wrongful death lawsuit against “Level 10 Construction, two subcontractors, and the property owner” in charge of overseeing the site where a construction worker fell to his death. The lawsuit itself was filed by the man’s wife, Irma Vargas, in Santa Clara County Superior Court, and is seeking damages for “emotional distress, wrongful death, negligent survival and premises liability from Level 10 Construction, Webcor Builders, Alamillo Rebar Inc. and Central Wolfe LLC.”
According to the lawsuit, the accident occurred when Jose Luis Delgado Lopez, 34, fell 76 feet from “the sixth story of the new clover-shaped building at 222 N. Wolfe Road that is anticipated to be leased by Apple Inc.” At the time of the accident, Delgado was employed by Alamillo Rebar, the company hired “to install rebar and iron reinforcements for the concrete structures” at the site. As explained in the lawsuit, “in order to reach rebar cables Delgado needed to walk onto a plywood platform, which collapsed.”
But how did the collapse happen? Well, according to the OSHA file about the accident, “the collapse was the result of supports under the platform being removed” by Webcor employees to allegedly save money. Unfortunately, Delgado wasn’t aware that the supports had been removed when he was “assigned to trim rebar and cables in preparation for concrete work.”
At the time of the accident, many other construction workers at the site heard Delgado’s screams as he fell, and around 7:51 a.m. he was found alive lying on the ground. Tragically, however, he was “pronounced dead at 8:02 a.m.”
Shortly after the accident, Vargas “began getting frantic calls…saying there had been an accident.” When she and her sister tried to contact Alamillo Rebar, though, they “were put on hold and were unable to speak to anyone at Level 10.” Out of ideas and worried about her husband, Vargas “looked up Level 10 projects on the company website and drove from Union City to the job site in Sunnyvale.” When she arrived, she informed a man at the site that she was looking for her husband, and that she had received calls about an accident. According to the lawsuit, he said, “Sorry to tell you, but he’s deceased.”
By the time Vargas found out about her husband’s death, it was noon, about four hours after the accident. In response to the news, she said, “I just stood there for I don’t how long—half an hour—and then they told me I needed to go.”
As of Wednesday, Level 10, Webcor Builders, and Alamillo Rebar all have yet to comment on the matter.
Sources:
Widow files wrongful death suit in fatal construction fall in Sunnyvale
Sunnyvale construction worker killed in fall down several stories
Join the conversation!