An electrical contractor working in the Museum of Science and Industry was last night pinned under a forklift. He sustained critical injuries, but was transported to the University of Chicago Medical Center and is in stable condition.
Chicago police and fire officials said that the 51-year-old contractor was working in the basement of the museum, lifting an old electrical vault out of a sub-floor, when he was knocked into a 6-foot hole and pinned beneath the forklift and a 2,000-pound electrical vault.
The man was treated immediately by a paramedic with a tourniquet and pain medication, fire chief Tim Walsh told The Maroon Tuesday morning. It took responders about an hour and fifteen minutes to free the man; he was then taken to UChicago hospitals for further treatment.
Chicago police and at least eight fire trucks, including the fire department's Special Operations Division, were present outside the museum late Monday night.
Scott Allen, a spokesperson with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) said that compliance safety officers had been dispatched to the museum.
“OSHA is aware of the incident and is responding,” Allen told The Maroon.
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In a statement sent to The Maroon, Amy Patti, MSI’s Director of Communications, said that the museum will “review the situation.”
“The Museum of Science and Industry has undertaken a yearlong renovation project to modernize our historic building. In the course of that work, a construction worker was injured late last night and transported to the University of Chicago Medical Center. We take the safety and well-being of everyone onsite at MSI very seriously and are working with the contractor to thoroughly review the situation,” the statement reads.
