3 construction workers killed in accident at downtown Raleigh building

RALEIGH, N.C. Three construction workers were killed and another seriously injured when a frame that supported a scaffolding system on the outside of a downtown office building collapsed Monday morning.

A witness, LeRoy Kelley, said workers were dismantling the scaffolding frame on the 11-story Charter Square building on Fayetteville Street and were descending the side of the building when something went wrong. Kelley thought at least four workers were on the scaffolding when it hit the ground.

Kelley, of Raleigh, was under the scaffolding doing concrete work when he heard a popping sound and someone shout, "Run!" As he did, he heard an enormous crash.

Kelley said he thought another worker was in a portable toilet that was crushed by the falling platform.

Authorities have not released the names of the dead and injured workers. The injured worker was taken to WakeMed Health & Hospitals.

Wake County EMS spokesman Jeff Hammerstein said authorities don't yet know where the workers were at the time of the accident.

"We don't know where they were or what they were doing," Hammerstein said.

The accident happened shortly before 11 a.m. Police blocked access around Charter Square, which is being built across from the Marriott City Center hotel. Dozens of construction workers were evacuated from the building and were standing on the lawn in front of the Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts a block south.

A support structure of the scaffolding system failed at the fifth floor and fell into the performing arts center parking lot across Lenoir Street. A piece of the frame pierced the glass wall of the building at the fifth floor and was sticking out of the building.

Raleigh-based Dominion Realty Partners is developing the 243,000-square-foot building. Choate Construction is the general contractor.

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3 construction workers killed in accident at downtown Raleigh building