With a dangerous job in high-rise construction, Vinner Juranvir Mendoza used to joke to his religious mother that if he ever was at risk of dying, he simply would ask God for forgiveness in his final moment.
He said he discovered a flaw in that strategy last month when an worksite incident sent him and three co-workers plummeting three stories from scaffolding at a luxury tower construction site in downtown West Palm Beach.
As he hurtled 45 feet toward the ground, the 20-year-old Mendoza had only a second to close his eyes and pray. In panicked free fall, he didn’t think to ask forgiveness. He just asked that God’s will be done.
When he hit the ground, his arm was broken and his body felt unnaturally hot.
“I didn’t want to open my eyes because I didn’t know if I was in heaven or hell,” he recalled in an interview with The Palm Beach Post.
It turned out he still was in West Palm Beach, surrounded by stunned colleagues at the future site of the Mr. C Hotel and Residences, a 27-story tower under construction on the 300 block of Lakeview Avenue..
Somehow, Mendoza and three co-workers had all survived a straight fall from the third-story scaffolding. They suffered broken legs or arms and, in one case, a fractured skull.
But they were alive.
A manager for Kast Construction, the company overseeing the construction project, told police that the Feb. 19 accident happened when a crane lowered a heavy toolbox onto the scaffolding.
The weight of the toolbox “caused the east side of the scaffold to flip forward, causing the 4 employees to fall to the ground,” a police report stated.
Kast Construction did not respond to messages seeking comment.
‘I try to see the positive side of it’
In the two weeks since the accident, Mendoza, a Mexican national who lives in the West Palm Beach area, said he has been recovering at home while awaiting surgery on his broken arm.
In high spirits, he joked about his brush with death, saying he’d realized his attempt to ensure salvation with a last-second prayer needed revision.
“Whenever I go through a tough time, I try to see the positive side of it,” he said.
Work day had just started on scaffold at West Palm Beach construction site
His work shift was just beginning when the fall happened at about 7 a.m.
Mendoza had ascended to the third-floor scaffolding to sign in for the day. He had just removed a work glove to sign his name on paperwork when he suddenly found himself in free fall.
As they crashed to the ground, one of his coworkers fell on top of him. He credits the fact that none were either killed or gravely wounded to supervisors’ insistence that they always wear full safety gear.
All four had their helmets fastened when the scaffolding flipped, he said.
In the moments after the incident, workers called 911 but declined to help him up, saying it was dangerous for him to move after such a fall.
He felt an unnatural thirst, but supervisors said it was risky, too, for him to drink water.
Eventually, he lost patience with the precautions and struggled to his feet on his own. When the ambulance arrived, he walked to it himself, he recalled proudly.
With his arm fractured in three places, Mendoza will be unable to work for several months, he said. But so far the subcontractor he worked for has been paying his medical and personal expenses, even hiring a translator for medical appointments and an Uber to transport him.
“They are covering all my costs,” he said.
He said he was surprised by the explanation that the collapse was caused by a crane placing a toolbox on scaffolding.
West Palm Beach police have referred the case to the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration for investigation.
Andrew Marra is a reporter at The Palm Beach Post. Reach him at amarra@pbpost.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Read why worker in West Palm scaffolding fall believes he survived
Reporting by Andrew Marra, Palm Beach Post / Palm Beach Post
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
