Houston, TX — August 1, 2024, Jose Hernandez Santacruz was killed as the result of a work accident at around 9:00 a.m. off Lockwood Drive.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration released an accident investigation summary. The incident happened at 875 Lockwood Drive, just south of Clinton Drive.
According to the summary, 37-year-old Jose Hernandez Santacruz was at an elevated position “laying out his fall harness.” Somehow, Hernandez Santacruz fell through an “unmarked” skylight to the floor below. As a result, Hernandez Santacruz was fatally injured.
The OSHA summary lists six reportedly “serious” citations. Right now, additional details are unavailable.
Commentary by Attorney Michael Grossman
While the exact circumstances surrounding this accident aren’t entirely clear, any work fall accident brings back disturbing memories of a case I handled a while back. It serves as an important lesson of why thorough investigations into any fatal work accident are so important. Not only do families deserve answers, but there could be deeper issues surrounding the accident that a simple OSHA investigation might overlook.
In that particular accident, a man fell from a cherry picker bucket to the ground below, suffering fatal injuries. For a while, the story was that the man’s harness failed, causing him to fall. The family wanted us to dig into things further just to be sure they weren’t missing anything important. As it turned out, they were missing a lot. We found out the true events were far more shocking.
We got in contact with a co-worker who witnessed the accident. His conscience couldn’t let him hide the truth anymore, and he confessed that the man fell because the supervisor at the job site and another worker got into a fist fight—yes, a full-on fight. They were doing so right next to the bucket controls, and they hit the controls, causing the bucket to dump the victim out onto the ground. That victim never had a safety harness. What happened was, in a panic, the supervisor and the other co-worker ran to a nearby hardware store, bought a safety harness, and put it on the dying man. Then they called 911. By then, it was too late.
To this day, I can’t think of that case without just shaking my head. It boggles the mind that there are employers out there who could do something so egregious, and then try to cover up the truth so the victim’s loved ones are left in the dark without the answers or closure they deserve. Not only that, but it’s possible the truth never would have come to light had the family not simply been prudent enough to seek out a second opinion from experienced professionals.
To be absolutely clear, I am not saying anything so serious happened here. I can’t say one way or the other how all of this happened. But with OSHA recommending multiple citations, I can’t help but wonder if this is another situation where serious issues at a workplace led to someone senselessly losing their life. Perhaps independent investigations here would also show there’s more to the story than even OSHA has found.
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