Man hurt by falling gas-station sign in Calabasas

[Erik Sine]

Man hurt by falling gas-station sign in Calabasas
By Gregory J. Wilcox, Los Angeles Daily News





A massive sign fell on a worker Friday at a Mobil station in Calabasas, seriously injuring his legs, officials said. The accident happened about 11 a.m. at the gas station near the Las Virgenes off-ramp at the 101 Freeway.
Los Angeles County sheriff’s Lt. Jennifer Seetlo said she was told the sign weighed “in excess of 3,000 pounds.”
Two workers were attending to the huge Mobil logo sign, which had been taken down temporarily. A photographer on scene said the wind kicked up, and it fell to the side, landing on the man’s legs.

“He was conscious and asking for help,” L.A. County Fire Department inspector Keith Mora said.
It took rescuers about 20 minutes to free the victim, and then they used portable hydraulic tools to lift the sign. The man suffered serious crushing injuries to his leg and was airlifted to a local trauma center, Mora said.
Officials did not identify the victim or the hospital.
The injured man was working for a sign company, said Sam Agaverdyan, the station’s owner. He could not provide any other details.

[Sirius LED Signs]

Only takes a second for this to heppen. Just shows us all that signs need to be secured even on the ground. I have seen large flex face retro fits picked up by the wind down here at a local shop while staging for install..

Be safe everyone!

[zsigns]

Brutal !

But come on who leaves what looks like 10 x 20 sittin on the ground up right un slung.

Don't think they were attending very well.

I feel sorry for the guy who got hurt.I hope he is ok.

I also feel sorry for who ever was running this job

Hope they all had insurance.

[Snoochie]

Firstly, I hope the Tech that got injured will be OK. I never like to hear stories like this.......

I am familiar with the type of sign that tipped over. It is what ExxonMobil refers to as a 29' Twin Pole Freeway sign. They don't build them anymore but they were prevalent at one time. They originally had Plex faces but were converted to Panaflex. The sign is 29'-0" across while it stands at well over 10'-0" tall. It weighs a boatload.

I am familiar with this sign in particular because I have worked on it in the past during my sign days. I have also worked at this particular station many times in the past as an electrician.

The sign was intact and up on the twin pole mounts when I last passed by a good while ago so I don't know if the sign was being retrofitted or simply being removed and cut up. In any event, it should have never been set on the asphalt and worked on without being braced. Very possibly the crew tipped the sign over while working on it as it sat on the ground. Although the worker was not too fortunate, the fact that the sign fell back towards the poles/planter is fortunate because it could have fallen the other way and possibly involved customers as well. It is near the public entrance. Thank God........

As the other poster stated, I hope all the proper insurance is intact. Liability and Work Comp.cases will be filed. In addition, ExxonMobil is very very strict with their safety policy so some company is going to have a lot of explaining and report filling to do.They have lengthy and detailed safety procedures that must be followed and will be very interested why the dangerous situation happened in the first place. The contractor may even be banned from working at ExxonMobil for this incident.

But be that as it may, I hope that the worker is OK and can resume his or her career in the sign industry. I hope the contractor of record takes/learns something from this unfortunate incident so it never is repeated.

Best