Death at Construction Site in the Bronx

Jenny Albano

Contributor

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A construction worker was killed Friday, December 7, at a construction site in the Bronx. The man was pinned between two pieces of heavy equipment and then was dropped into an eight foot deep hole. Authorities have not released the man's name so they could inform the family first, but the company, Underground Water and Sewer of the Bronx, identified the worker as Bekim Hysenlekaj.

Hysenlekaj was an immigrant from Kosovo who had been living in the United States for only a few months. He had left his two young sons in Kosovo to come and work here.

The workers were supposed to be laying pipes that would connect an under construction apartment building to a city water main. The construction workers needed to use a backhoe to dig the hole to get to the water main and were about to cover up the hole with plywood when the accident occurred.

Mr. Hysenlekaj was standing near the backhoe about 12:45 p.m. as the backhoe operator was apparently scooping dirt out of the hole into a dump truck. Mr. Hysenlekaj's head became pinned between the arm of the backhoe and the side of the truck, a spokesman for the Fire Department said.

Hysenlekaj was announced dead shortly after he was admitted to a local hospital. The cause of death was not immediately clear. Authorities think that the backhoe operator could not see Mr. Hysenlekaj when the incident occurred, but police officers administered a Breathalyzer test a standard procedure.

For more information on this subject, please refer to our section on Workplace Injuries.