SARASOTA, Fla. (SNN) – Tragedy struck on a Suncoast construction site.
A man is dead after he fell while working on the ninth floor of the Peninsula Sarasota condominium being built on Golden Gate Point.
Neighbors were shocked and saddened to hear the news.
“Everyone’s praying for him and his family,” Sarasota resident Mike Stengel said.
“I feel bad for the contractors because they have worked hard to keep a safe work environment,” Stengel said. “So, it puts a damper on the job. Really, really terrible.”
The Suncoast News Network obtained a Sarasota Police report that states officers responded to a call referring to a Hispanic man who fell on the job just before 8 a.m. on Tuesday morning.
It says he was found not breathing, unconscious, and with an apparent head injury.
Neighbor Lenie Kruk has lived in Sarasota for 23 years. He said he did not realize what had happened on Tuesday, but did notice a halt in construction noise.
“For the first time in weeks, maybe months, it was very quiet yesterday,” Kruk said. “Had no idea anything was going on.”
After being brought down by a crane, Sarasota County Fire Rescue tried CPR on the worker, but he was later pronounced dead at Sarasota Memorial Hospital, according to the police report.
A supervisor told police that the man was walking across an aluminum beam and fell head-first six to seven feet down onto sloping concrete with protruding rebar.
Sarasota resident Waunita Sawler and her husband said they walk by this area often, and while they do not know the man involved in this situation, they can relate to the pain of losing someone on a construction site.
“We had friends back home, the husband went to work one morning, a load shifted, and he was killed,” Sawler said. “So, we know what it’s like to lose someone, they go to work, and then they don’t come home.”
Sawler said she feels for all of the workers who work all day long on these projects. She said it is disappointing to see it come to this.
According to the Sarasota Police report, a criminal investigation is underway.
Data from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration showed this incident as the seventh death in Sarasota work-related incidents since August 2017.