At least 16 NC workers died in scaffolding-related incidents over the past decade

Even before three Charlotte construction workers died when scaffolding collapsed on Jan. 2, it was clear that those elevated platforms can be dangerous.

Occupational safety records show that at least 16 people in North Carolina have died in scaffolding-related incidents on job sites over the past decade. Of those, at least 11 deaths resulted from various types of scaffolds that collapsed, broke or malfunctioned.

Among the fatal events:

March 2015: Three workers in Raleigh died and another was seriously injured when a “mast climber scaffold” - much like the one that collapsed in Charlotte this year - fell to the ground. Mast-climber scaffolds are elevator-like devices that carry construction workers up and down building facades. In the Raleigh case, investigators found that the scaffolding had not been properly tied to the building and had been loaded with too much weight.

April 2019: A construction worker in Pine Knoll Shores was installing sheetrock from a scaffolding when a wooden plank slid, causing him to fall 16 feet to the concrete floor. He died at a hospital.

December 2020: A 47-year-old worker was remodeling a home in Timberlake, north of Raleigh, when a board he was standing on broke. The man fell nearly 13 feet to the ground and died the following day.

May 2021: A 36-year-old construction worker in La Grange, southeast of Raleigh, was trying to hand a bundle of shingles to a coworker on a roof when the scaffold he was standing on collapsed, causing him to fall five feet. He died in an ambulance.

February 2022: A 56-year-old masonry worker in Jacksonville was walking to the end of a scaffold when a wooden plank “catapulted,” causing him to fall 14 feet to his death, state Occupational Safety and Health records show.

Observer data reporter Gavin Off contributed.