Crime & Safety

Worker from Casino Project in 'Serious but Stable' Condition

Darwin Suazo Jimenez remains at shock trauma but is improving, said officials.

Darwin Suazo Jimenez, involved in the that killed another man outside Arundel Mills on Friday, is in “serious but stable” condition, according to officials at University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center.

The 25-year-old construction worker from Manassas, VA, has been at shock trauma since Friday, when a 25-ton wall collapsed at the casino site where he was working. On Friday, he was in "critical" condition with life-threatening injuries.

Police, hospital and labor officials would not comment on details surrounding where Jimenez was at the time of the collapse.

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Leon Ray Sax, 27, of Hanover, PA, was standing in a bucket lift when the wall fell on and killed him, said police. It took three hours and the assistance of a structural engineer to retrieve his body from the wreckage, according to the Baltimore Sun. Police said the death is being classified as an accident.

The Sun reported that L.R. Willson & Sons employed the two workers. A spokeswoman from L.R. Willson & Sons declined to comment on the incident or the status of the project, pending the conclusion of the investigation.

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The work site was closed over the weekend, a decision the construction company made of its own accord, according to the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation.

On Friday, the casino construction site was closed as Maryland Occupation Safety and Health officials investigated.

“The investigation is ongoing; therefore, we can’t comment on it,” said Shannon David, spokeswoman for the state’s labor department. She said that officials haven't determined whether heat was a factor.

On Friday when the accident occurred, the National Weather Service had issued a heat advisory for much of central Maryland. Temperatures on the heat index were in the triple digits.

The Friday incident marks the second time in a month that construction workers have been seriously injured while working at the site.  that a casino construction worker was hospitalized after a piece of concrete fell on his leg on July 6.

Since January, developer The Cordish Company has been working on the construction site at Arundel Mills. Voters approved the plan to build a casino there in November 2010. The Daily Record reported that the slots parlor is expected to open by June 2012.


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