A pedestrian was killed Friday in Oakland when a metal cylinder weighing thousands of pounds flew off a structure at the University of Pittsburgh’s new athletic functional center and traveled several hundred feet before hitting it, the government said.
The steel tube, about as long as a pickup truck and several feet high, fell or detached from a heavy apparatus around 10:40 a. m. said Emily Bourne, a spokeswoman for the Pittsburgh Police Department.
After rolling down a hill and through a fence, the cylinder struck her as she was walking with colleagues at UPMC’s Western Psychiatric Hospital in the 3,700 block of Terrace Street, police said. The Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office identified the victim as 51-year-old Aleia Lopez. on the north side of Pittsburgh.
The cylinder continued across the road and pulled up to a pickup truck to stop.
Bystanders attended to the woman and paramedics arrived within four minutes, Bourne said, but she was pronounced dead at the scene at 10:45 a. m. m. La police said initial reports indicated the woman had suffered a head injury.
It came from the site of the structure of the new University of Pittsburgh athletic functionality center and was launched down the hill to the right @TribLIVE pic. twitter. com/VgGFwioJNb
– Megan Swift (@mgswift7) May 3, 2024
The crash happened near the Petersen Events Center, Pitt’s main stadium on Terrace Street, and a few blocks from Western Psych, the city’s main intellectual hospital on O’Hara Street.
Emergency said there were traffic disruptions on De Soto Street between Sutherland Drive and O’Hara.
Jared Stonesifer, a spokesman for Pitt, said the city of Pittsburgh and the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration will conduct the investigation with support from the university.
Gilbane Building Co. and Massaro Construction Group are leading the framing allocation for Victory Heights, a $240 million sports center. At a joint meeting Friday afternoon, the contractors did not provide any details about the incident but said an unidentified subcontractor was involved.
“We are working intensively with the government to investigate this tragic incident involving one of our subcontractors. We thank the first responders for their activation movements at the scene,” he said. “We are deeply saddened by today’s events and our minds go out to the circle of family members of the user affected by this incident. “
– Megan Swift (@mgswift7) May 3, 2024
Jordan Baum said he owned the black pickup truck that went through the cylinder.
He said he parked on De Soto Street around 7 a. m. m. Friday and learned of a twist of fate around 11 a. m. m.
“That’s how you need Friday to go, but a truck is just a truck; you can upgrade a truck,” Cranberry’s Baum said.
Baum, one of Abbott Labs’ lead clinical specialists, said he parks on the street every weekday.
He said he was praying for the woman’s family.
Scott Fedorek is narrowly at the scene of the accident.
“I took the same path that she had taken about 15 minutes before her,” said Fedorek, a neurophysiologist at UPMC.
Every day, Fedorek said, he takes the same path up the stairs in front of the Petersen Events Center to De Soto Street.
When he travels for work, he picks up the equipment used in the operating rooms in front of Scaife Hall on De Soto Street.
“I was sitting there at 10:30 waiting for my machines, and it happened around 10:40,” Fedorek said, explaining how his colleagues carried the machines to their car.
“You don’t expect it,” he said, noting how beautiful and sunny Friday morning was. “Life can change very quickly. “
University officials approved the structure of the Victory Heights facility in November 2022 on the same site as the former Pitt Stadium.
The $240 million sports center will feature a 3,000-seat stadium, as well as spaces for training, sports medicine and sports performance.
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