A construction worker who was working on the L.A. Metro’s Purple Line Extension Project in Mid-Wilshire Wednesday has died.
The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority confirmed that the worker was killed while working at the future site of the Wilshire/La Brea metro station at 711 S. La Brea Ave.
The Los Angeles City Fire Department responded to the construction site around 5:25 p.m. for a report of a worker who was trapped by a service car in the underground tunnel where work was being done.
Battalion Chief Kenneth Miller told KTLA a 32-year-old man was killed when he was trapped underneath a service vehicle that brings equipment and personnel back and forth from the surface to the underground work site. Crews were servicing the tunnel and the train when the accident happened, Miller said.
The circumstances that led to the man being trapped are under investigation, but the death appears to be accidental, Miller said.
No other injuries were reported, but Miller said fire personnel were monitoring the behavioral health of MTA workers and responding firefighters.
The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) will investigate the accident.
The construction site is part of MTA’s ongoing Purple Line Extension project, which will extend the Metro D Line from Koreatown to West L.A. The nine-mile project is being built in three sections, MTA said.
In a news release sent out Wednesday night, Metro CEO Stephanie N. Wiggins called the death a “tragedy beyond words.” Wiggins said the MTA is working with all regulatory bodies to determine what led to the man’s death.
Twenty fire companies and more than 80 fire personnel responded to the scene along with law enforcement and ambulances.