Worker Killed On Murrieta Construction Project

A man working on the Guava Street flood control construction project was killed Monday morning, a fire chief is reporting.

According to Chief Matt Shobert of the Murrieta Fire Department, his crews were dispatched to the construction site at approximately 6:30 a.m. and found that an industrial-sized forklift had “tilted over and trapped a worker."

The forlikft operator's injuries were fatal and he was pronounced dead at the scene.

“[First responders] attempted some rescue efforts but it was quickly realized that the injuries had killed the approximately 30-year-old male,” Shobert continued.

The man’s identity has not yet been released pending notification of next of kin.

The construction area was cordoned off and Occupational Safety and Health Administration officials were called to the scene, Shobert said.

According to Rumzi AlAbbasi, a partner of Riverside-based AlAbbasi Construction and Engineering -- the company which was awarded a nearly $4-million contract Dec. 4, 2012 by the City of Murrieta to perform the long-planned job of installing an 1,100-foot-long box-shaped culvert under the Guava Street/Adams Avenue intersection -- the worker killed today was an employee of Perris-based Intergrity Rebar Placers. 

Patch contacted Integrity Rebar Placers, but the company declined an immediate statement. According to AlAbbasi, Integrity Rebar Placers was hired as a subcontractor on the project.

The flood control project — approved as part of the City’s Capital Improvement Plan — follows the installation of large drainage lines to carry flood waters underground from Madison Avenue west to Jefferson Avenue. The pipelines will convey the waters into the culvert.

Work on the Guava project started Jan. 22, and is expected to take 12 months to complete.