Clearwater company faulted in death

A Labor Department inquiry finds violations at a construction site, where a pipe dropped on a car.

©Associated Press
April 5, 2002

BURLINGTON, N.C. -- Improper operation of a drilling rig by a Clearwater contractor working on an interstate construction project in Alamance County contributed to an accident that killed a motorist, investigators for the state Department of Labor have found.

Steven Edward Whitesell, 37, was northbound on Interstate 85 on Feb. 21 when a drilling rig tipped over and dropped a pipe weighing several thousand pounds on his car.

Coastal Caissons Corp. of Clearwater has been fined $2,800 in the accident.

The Department of Labor found that a Coastal Caissons crew did not use the drilling rig properly in the wind conditions that day. It also determined that Coastal Caissons did not provide an operator's manual or have proper warnings posted on the drill.

The improper use "was a contributing cause of the rig tipping over," according to the department's finding.

The main contractor on the overpass project, the Thompson-Arthur Division of APAC-Carolina Inc., has since fired Coastal Caissons.

A representative of Coastal Caissons said Wednesday that his company had not gotten word of the finding. The company can pay the fine, possibly have it reduced after a mediation session with Labor Department officials, or challenge it before a review board.

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