San Francisco Bay Bridge Painter Is in Critical Condition After Falling 80 feet

While taking a break from pressure washing, a worker on the Bay Bridge fell from scaffolding on March 27, plummeting more than 80 feet to a lower platform, where he lay seriously injured for an hour until firefighters carried him away on a stretcher.

James Clemons, 57, of Oakland, was in critical condition at San Francisco General Hospital with injuries to his head, ribs, stomach, pelvis and legs but he's expected to survive.

"It could have been much worse," said the safety director for contractor that Caltrans hired to help retrofit the Bay Bridge. "It appears he's very fortunate to be alive."

A preliminary investigation indicates that Clemons either slipped or tripped from the Bay Bridge's central anchorage west of Yerba Buena Island.

Clemons and three other workers were standing on a platform connected to the tower's scaffolding, about 100 feet below the lower deck of the Bay Bridge, when the accident happened a few minutes before 3:30 a.m.

As Clemons fell to the deck below, his body hit parts of the metal scaffolding that surrounds the tower, which slowed his fall, said a San Francisco Fire Department spokesman.

To get to Clemons, who was conscious but unable to move, firefighters had to carry their rescue equipment through a labyrinth of stairways inside the tower, then walk to the deck where Clemons lay prone. The deck was about 60 feet above the bay waters.

After debating whether to lift Clemons by rope to the lower deck of the Bay Bridge, rescuers decided to carry him down to the base of the tower, where a San Francisco fireboat took him to a waiting ambulance in San Francisco.

"The painter was supposed to clip on to a safety line above his head as he walked on the scaffold line," said the project manager for the retrofit contractor. "He was wearing a hard hat and a full body harness with a double lanyard which would have two hooks, so in one practice, as one hook is attached in front, the other is detached. In this case, it was apparent that he didn't (follow the procedure). In this industry, you have to do it," he added. "It is a very unfortunate accident."

The state Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Caltrans, the contractors and the subcontractor that employed the worker, are all investigating the accident.

This worker is one of the hundreds of people who work daily on the $100 million earthquake retrofit of the Bay Bridge. The retrofit began last year and will last at least another two years. When the accident happened, Clemons' group was preparing to wash down the southwest portion of the anchorage so it would be clean for a coat of paint. Tarps cover some of the tower scaffolding.

Officials praised the San Francisco Fire Department for its quick action in commandeering the anchorage's stairwells and getting Clemons to the hospital as quickly as possible.

The March 27 accident was the second in five months involving a worker on the Bay Bridge. In September, a construction worker fell into the water after a cable holding up his scaffolding broke. The worker fell 10 feet and was not seriously injured, but he was on a platform that was rising to a section of the bridge 220 feet above the water. He was picked up by a maintenance barge working under the bridge. Caltrans blamed the incident on one of the four cables used to hold up the scaffolding, which broke and tilted the platform.

Source: San Francisco Chronicle, March 27 and 28, 2001