A 27-year-old man injured when a steel beam struck him at a construction site Monday in the town of DeWitt is likely alive because he was wearing a hard hat, police said.

The website Syracuse.com is reporting that a 27-year-old man injured when a steel beam struck him at a construction site Monday in the town of DeWitt is likely alive because he was wearing a hard hat, police said.

"Thank goodness he was wearing the hard hat," DeWitt Police Capt. John Anton said. "The hard hat probably saved his life."

Officers who responded to the accident shortly after 11 a.m. Monday at 6589 Thompson Road in DeWitt said they saw a group of steel beams tied together, with a crane holding them up, Anton said. A smaller corner beam from the larger group of steel beams dropped and struck the man and his hard hat, Anton said.

The man was taken to Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse with serious injuries, police said. He was in stable condition Monday night and is expected to survive, Anton said.

DeWitt police turned over the investigation to the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration. An OSHA investigator went to the former Mobil gas station, where construction crews are building a new Express Mart on Thompson Road next to Denny's off Carrier Circle.

The investigator took measurements and photographs, and interviewed witnesses to determine what caused the accident, said Chris Adams, OSHA's Syracuse area director.

Once OSHA investigators determine what caused the accident, they will then determine if there were any OSHA violations, Adams said.

The company involved in Monday's accident, J & E Pile Driving Inc., of 6459 E. Taft Road, East Syracuse, has no prior OSHA violations, records show.

Source: Syracuse.com

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