The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating the death of a man working on the Atlanta airport’s massive new parking deck construction earlier this week.
Keni Corado Herrera of Atlanta, 49, died after being transported to Grady Memorial Hospital from the job site Monday morning, according to a Clayton County Death Investigation Report obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
An autopsy was underway Friday afternoon, Brian Byars, the director of the Clayton Medical Examiner’s Office, confirmed.
On Friday, a U.S. Department of Labor spokesperson said OSHA had “initiated an inquiry into the circumstances concerning the fatality.”
According to the death investigation report, Herrera had been a “laborer” for Austell-based concrete construction company United Forming for more than a year.
The report states he was identified only by a Guatemalan-issued identification card, and his wife and other family live in Guatemala.
In a statement, United Forming’s Vice President of Administration Kevin King said the company was “deeply saddened that a member of the United Forming family passed away July 14th on our project site at the Atlanta airport. Currently, the cause of death is unknown, but it appears to have been natural causes.”
“The safety of everyone on our project sites is very important to us. We are conducting a thorough internal review and cooperating fully with OSHA,” King said.
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is building a massive, $530 million parking deck with about 7,700 spaces, which is expected to be completed by next summer.
According to a prior news release, United Forming was selected to do concrete formwork on the project, which spans six levels and 2 million square feet. The company calls itself “one of the largest concrete structure builders in the Southeastern and Southwestern U.S.”
While the Clayton County investigator said in the report the death is being viewed as “natural with no suspicions of foul play,” a paramedic told the investigator it “appeared” Herrera “may have been injured by material at the construction site.”
Herrera was last seen alive around 7 a.m. on Monday when he arrived for work and did not seem sick or voice any complaints, according to the investigation report.
But at 7:51 a.m. his colleagues called paramedics after finding him unresponsive and “in a prone position” on the floor of the garage’s sixth level with a “laceration on his face that appeared to be from his collapse.”
Herrera’s supervisor told the investigator that, according to his co-workers, Herrera had “asked for a referral to a doctor a few weeks back, citing chest pains,” but it wasn’t known if he actually went.
Herrera’s job was to remove support beams from the ceiling, according to the report, though on Monday morning he was reportedly tasked with cleaning up and organizing debris.
His co-workers did CPR for about 20 minutes, until Atlanta Fire Rescue was able to reach him and continue resuscitation efforts.
According to an incident report obtained from Atlanta Fire Rescue, paramedics’ response was delayed because of scaffolding and roof supports blocking their path.
There was “no cardiac activity while en route, or upon arrival to the hospital” and he was pronounced dead at 8:57 a.m. at Grady, according to the investigator.
The only documented injury was a 3-inch long laceration on his forehead and between his eyebrows.
An airport spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the incident on Friday.
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