BREAKING: Worker injured in Pearl Midtown 29 construction accident near Wynwood

Fire rescue crews gather around the Pearl Midtown 29 construction site Tuesday (Credit: city of Miami Fire Department)
Fire rescue crews gather around the Pearl Midtown 29 construction site Tuesday (Credit: city of Miami Fire Department)

UPDATED 11:08 a.m. Nov. 29: Fire rescue crews pulled an injured worker from the Pearl Midtown 29 construction site near Wynwood after the contractor was pinned when equipment collapsed early Tuesday morning.

Just before 9 a.m., a piece of formation material fell and trapped a worker on the 12th floor of Midtown 29, the Miami Herald reported. The contractors’ co-workers freed him from the debris, but couldn’t carry him to the ground floor because the elevator doesn’t reach above the sixth story.

Sean Murphy, co-president of the project’s general contractor Coastal Construction, told The Real Deal that the worker had been standing atop a stack of formation materials, trying to rig it to a crane boom. The stack tipped over, sending the worker falling about five feet.

City of Miami fire rescue crews were called to the scene, where they used a crane to lower him to the ground in a rescue basket. Murphy said the worker didn’t lose consciousness during the incident, and rescue crews put a boot on one of the worker’s feet. He was transported to the Ryder Trauma Center, but beyond that, Murphy said he isn’t sure of the worker’s condition.

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Coastal’s in-house safety monitors are now looking into the accident, and the construction site has been shut down until a cause is found. Murphy said that could take a day or two, though he isn’t sure exactly how long.

Located at 180 Northeast 29th Street, the apartment project is planned to be 20 stories with 309 rental units and about 13,000 square feet of retail space. Construction has so far progressed to the 12th floor, where Tuesday’s accident occurred.

Morgan Group, a Texas apartment builder, is the developer.

The incident follows just a month after two separate construction accidents in Brickell and Hollywood left two dead and several others injured.