Worker in Critical Condition After Construction Accident

A 40-year-old construction worker was in critical condition Wednesday after becoming pinned between a 50-foot metal tube and a piece of machinery at the site of a planned Long Beach parking structure.

A worker saw night supervisor Robert Card waving for help Tuesday night in a poorly lit area of the job site. Card became trapped by a vibration tube, a massive cylinder used to pack rock into the soil, when it rolled on top of him, said Capt. James Watson, a spokesman for the city Fire Department.

A fellow worker used a forklift to help lift the tube enough to allow firefighters to extricate Card, but he had suffered extensive internal injuries and was rushed to St. Mary Medical Center. Card, of Woodland, Calif., underwent emergency surgery Wednesday.

Cal/OSHA investigators were dispatched to the site.

State records show the company working at the site, Santa Paula-based Hayward Baker Inc., was fined more than $73,000 last year after a crane boom snapped at a Terminal Island construction project and killed a worker. Investigators found that the firm lacked proper inspection policies and that management refused to stop a hoisting operation even after a crane operator told supervisors his crane was unsafe. Cal/OSHA spokesman Troy Swauger said the company had appealed the fines.

Long Beach awarded the $10.8-million contract for the Queensway Bay parking structure to a prime contractor and 18 subcontractors--including Hayward Baker--in May, less than a year after state investigators found serious and willful safety violations at the Terminal Island job site.

City officials said they were precluded by law from barring any subcontractors and that they conduct background checks only on the prime contractor.