Worker killed in Sound Transit tunnel

(Editor's Note: This story has been altered. The name of the plaintiff in a lawsuit against Sound Transit and Obayashi Corp. is Tyler Scott. His name was incorrect in the original version of this story.)

A South Seattle industrial accident that took the life of a worker early Wednesday morning wasn't the first life-threatening accident at the Sound Transit work site.

The deadly accident came just three months after three other workers were injured in a similar accident at the Beacon Hill tunnel. Then, just as was the case Wednesday, workers failed to stop a locomotive while exiting the tunnel.

This time, though, it cost one mechanic working the overnight shift his life.

"Our goal is to get everybody home at the end of the day," said Joni Earl, chief executive of Sound Transit. But, she added, "something went seriously wrong."

The two workers involved in the accident were employees of Obayashi Corp., the general contractor hired by Sound Transit to bore a mile-long tunnel through Beacon Hill as part of the $2.4 billion Link Light Rail project. They were working near the tunnel's western portal, located next to the Tully's Coffee plant on Airport Way South.

Just after 4:10 a.m., the two men were driving a six-car train into the tunnel when one realized they had forgotten a piece of equipment at the entrance, said Bruce Gray, a spokesman for the three-county transit agency. On their way back to the entrance, the workers lost control of the engine and crashed into a parked locomotive.

The mechanic was gravely injured when he was either thrown from the engine or jumped from the engine, landing on the elevated platform near the track, Gray said. He was rushed to Harborview Medical Center, where he died, a hospital spokeswoman said.

The other worker -- a train operator -- was treated for minor injuries at Harborview and left the hospital.

Speaking at the scene of the accident, Earl said Sound Transit and Obayashi would review the cause of the accident in coming days. She would not discuss the accident in detail.

Since Obayashi won the contract to build the Beacon Hill leg of the 16-mile rail line in March 2004, workers there have been involved in at least three major accidents. But no workers had been seriously hurt or killed at the site until the Wednesday morning crash.

On Oct. 27, three Obayashi workers were injured when the train they were riding failed to stop, according to an internal investigation conducted by Sound Transit.

The men jumped from the engine, suffering injuries ranging from a broken toe to a fractured vertebra, according to the report. The engine and train fell from the 30-foot-high elevated track, crashing into a piece of heavy equipment below.

According to the report, an untrained laborer was driving the train at the time of the accident. He apparently started out of the tunnel at high speed, which contributed to a brake failure on the train.

Following the investigation, Obayashi suspended two supervisors for three days each and began requiring that only trained operators drive the locomotives. The company redesigned a barrier at the end of the elevated rail line.

Rick Capka, a Sound Transit engineer for the Beacon Hill project, said Wednesday's operator was qualified. Since the October accident, he said, his agency has verified that Obayashi has been checking the trains' brake systems and has been using qualified operators.

But Richard Sage, a deputy construction manager for Sound Transit, said Wednesday that any amount of planning would not address all risks.

"You never get rid of all the hazards," Sage said. "The human factor is something you can never engineer out."

Another worker was nearly killed in January 2005 while working on another Beacon Hill tunnel serving an underground station.

Seattle resident Tyler Scott was working near the top of a vertical tunnel designed to serve the station when a spool of plastic tubing and wire rope fell from a crane above him, said Matt Knopp, a Seattle attorney representing Scott in a lawsuit against Sound Transit and Obayashi.

Caught in the tubing, Scott was pulled headfirst into the mud-filled tunnel, Knopp said. He would likely have drowned had other workers not hurried to help him.

Scott suffered disabling leg injuries and can no longer do construction work, the attorney said.

"They had safety people who just weren't doing their jobs," Knopp said. "Even though they'd been informed that there were problems with this equipment, they did not act upon that information."

Knopp added that his client should never have been asked to work under a crane.

Obayashi spokesman Charles Sipkins, as well as Gray, declined to discuss the lawsuit, which is scheduled to go to trial in King County Superior Court this June.

Sipkins did say that safety is Obayashi's "number one concern."

"We regret today's tragic incident and extend our deepest sympathies to the families of the victims," Sipkins said, reading from a prepared statement.

Investigators with the state Department of Labor & Industries were at the site Monday morning, department spokeswoman Elaine Fischer said. They previously inspected the site in May following a complaint, but noted no violations during the surprise inspection.

Fischer said workplace insurance records show that Obayashi has a better-than-average safety record for its industry.

Representatives of the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 302 declined to discuss the recent spate of accidents.

Earl said the work site would remain closed until the investigation is complete. She said the closure wouldn't delay the completion of the light rail system, which is scheduled to begin operations in 2009.

Sound Transit officials have said the Beacon Hill work is generally proceeding on schedule, though costs for the tunnel drilling and the underground station have exceeded the initial budget.