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California Construction Accident Electrocution

Posted on Oct 27, 2011

A recent construction accident in California serves as a reminder to all New York construciton crews to exercise extreme care when working around power lines. Orland, California police reported that construction worker Mark Godfrey Jr., age 23, was holding a pole his father was attempting to move with a forklift. The forklift touched 12,000 volt wires overhead, transferring the power to the pole Godfrey was holding, resulting in a construction accident electrocution, and the forklife tires caught on fire.

As retired firefighter Willy Kendrick, an employee of Orland Unit Water Users Association was passing the construction site, he saw the flames and the man being dragged from underneath the forklift so he stopped to help. He knew Godfrey was in distress, and immediately began CPR efforts to manage the airway and keep him breathing. Kendrick and Godfrey's father took turns giving mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, but Kendrick had to ask a police officer on the scene, Kyle Cessna, to take over the chest compressions as Godfrey was muscular and body had tensed up due to the electrical shock and Kendrick said he just wasn't strong enough to give effective chest compressions. The quick response of everyone on site helped save Godfrey's life. Additional Orland firefighters and ambulance crew arrived soon after Kendrick and Cessna's lifesaving efforts began, and by the time the young construction worker was transported to Enloe Medical Center, he was breathing on his own.

Another construction worker on the scene, Scott Gully, age 40, was shocked when he tried putting the fire on the tires out with a bucket of water. He was treated at the scene and released.

This construction accident demonstrates the importance that all construction workers learn CPR and lifesaving efforts; and are fully trained on what to do after a construction accident or electrocution.

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Lever & Stolzenberg, LLP is located in White Plains, New York and serves clients throughout the state, including New York City's five boroughs (The Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan and Staten Island) as well as Westchester County, Rockland County and Long Island. 

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