Four Workers Injured In SR 99 Tunnel Accident

Four workers were injured in an accident at the north end of the 99 tunnel project near Seattle Center on Thursday afternoon.

Three of those workers walked out on their own; firefighters had to walk in half a mile to free a fourth worker who had been trapped 25 feet down from where he fell.

According to Seattle Fire spokesman Kyle Moore, the men were working on a wall project when it broke beneath them, sending them hurtling 25 feet to the ground below. The men were 23, 29, 31 and 36.

The trapped worker had a broken arm and complained of injuries to the chest and stomach area, Moore said.

The accident took place in an open air pit – Moore said the site is where cars will exit the north end of the 99 tunnel once the project is complete.

The four workers were transported to nearby Harborview Medical Center, the region's level 1 trauma center. One worker suffered a broken arm and remained in intensive care on Monday morning, while the three others were in satisfactory condition.

Moore said that a technical rescue team -- experts at high angles -- had pulled out the trapped worker. He said they deployed a stokes basket, a sort of gurney, to lift the man out of the pit.

The technical rescue team practices on major construction sites around the city, Moore said.

“They’ve seen the project, they know where the cranes are, the elevators,” he said. “They like to be familiar with those kind of things.”

Medics and four ladder trucks were dispatched to the scene after the call came in at 1:36 p.m. on Thursday.