Update: Men Flown by Life Star After Fall at Storrs Center Site

Two construction workers remain hospitalized after falling from a scissor lift Monday morning.

The Empire Construction Special Projects workers, subcontractors out of Dudley, MA, were installing backing on a building at the Storrs Center work site, when the equipment failed, said Donna Prince, director of marketing at Erland Construction, the contractor selected to build Storrs Center.

Both workers fell about 25 feet, Prince said. The extent of their injuries is not known.

“It appears as though the scissor mechanism separated from its base, and it caused the entire apparatus to pitch to the right and the men fell off,” Prince said.

“It didn’t tip over, it didn’t fall down, it just lost its center of balance,” she said.

Prince said the men were not wearing safety harnesses. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) does not require employees to be tied-off when working from scissor lifts, according to its Web site.

Prince said the equipment was inspected upon delivery on Nov. 21, but was not used until Monday morning after an additional inspection.

The lift passed inspection both times, according to Prince.

“Where the material failed, is not a place where you would have been able to see on a visual inspection,” Prince said. “It was an inside area.”

Prince said that OSHA has been notified of the incident, and that work in that particular area of the job site has been suspended pending further investigation.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with these two men and we would like to hear that they’re making a full recovery,” Prince said. “That’s what we think about all day.”

The names of the men have not been released.

Original Story; 12:49 p.m.

Two men were flown by Life Star helicopter to Hartford Hospital Monday morning with “serious” injuries after reportedly falling about 40 feet from a hydrolift, Mansfield Fire Chief David Dagon said.

The fall occurred around 11 a.m. at building TS1 on the Storrs Center job site, according to Dagon.

The men were taken from the construction site by Mansfield and University of Connecticut ambulances to a soccer field at the end of Post Office Road where officials had set up a landing zone, Dagon said.

The helicopter landed about 30 minutes after the call for service, according to Dagon.

Authorities did not have an initial report on their condition.

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Storrs Center is intended to be a mixed-use town center located adjacent to the .

When completed, the $220 million project would give Mansfield new retail, restaurant, office and residential development.

Stick with Mansfield-Storrs Patch for updates as they become available.