Worker Plummets 30 Feet

A construction worker fell nearly 30 feet from a Harvard construction site on Monday, suffering severe back injuries and prompting an investigation to determine if the University—or its contractors—can be held liable.

The worker, whose name was not released, was “semi-conscious” and was rushed to Massachusetts General Hospital after he fell from the construction site on 52 Oxford Street at 12:53 p.m. Monday afternoon, according to Cambridge Fire Department Deputy Chief and Public Information Officer James Burns.

“The medics stabilized him and transported him out from the hole of the construction site,” which is below street level, he said.

The Methuen office of the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) is investigating the incident, said OSHA spokesman John M. Chavez.

The investigation by OSHA, which is a division of the US Department of Labor, is looking into whether there was negligence by either Harvard or a contractor, Chavez said.

“The law places the responsibility for workplace safety and health on employers.”

“So part of the investigation would determine who the responsible employer is, whether it was the contractor or Harvard,” he added. “And if hypothetically should any safety or health standards have been violated, it is possible that OSHA would issue citations with proposed penalties to the employer.”

Chavez refused to comment on details of the investigation, saying only that it could take up to six months to complete.

“Any accident involving injury to workers is very painstaking to conduct,” he said.

According to Faculty of Arts and Sciences Director of Communications Robert Mitchell, the construction site where the worker fell at 52 Oxford Street is set to be a new science building.

“It’s the Northwest Building,” he said. “Ultimately it’ll be primarily science labs, as well as some faculty offices. But the focus will be on the sciences.”

An employee of Bond Brothers, the construction company based in Everett, Mass. that is handling the project, said that a sub-contractor was in charge of the site, but refused to comment further.

Joseph Griffin, the director of Environmental Health and Safety at Harvard, could not be reached for comment last night.

—Staff writer Reed B. Raymond can be reached at rrayman@fas.harvard.edu.