OSHA looking into Lower Merion accident

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating an industrial accident yesterday in which an aerial lift fell, injuring a worker on a construction site in Lower Merion.

Leni Fortson, spokeswoman for the administration, said investigators this morning were at Lower Merion High School in Ardmore, site of yesterday's 3:44 p.m. accident. It occurred at Montgomery Avenue and School House Lane, site of a new $100 million high school under construction.

Yesterday, an aerial lift was being moved in the area of the new swimming pool, inside the new structure, Lower Merion Police Superintendent Michael J. McGrath said. The lift toppled, pinning underneath a worker identified by McGrath as Mark Rieser, 50, of Yardley.

Workers removed the lift from Rieser, who was reported in good condition at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania this morning, hospital spokeswoman Kim Guenther said.

Under OSHA policy, Fortson said, she could say only that the investigation would focus on what caused the accident, and whether workplace conditions violated the federal health and safety act of 1970.

That act, Fortson said, sets safety standards for construction sites. Investigators have six months to complete their work and release the findings, she said.

Taking out of service any apparatus involved in the accident would be up to the construction firm, Fortson said.

Lower Merion police alerted OSHA to the industrial accident yesterday, McGrath said, and the local department has no further interest in investigating, he said.

Lower Merion High is being rebuilt while classes are held in the old building, also on the campus. Douglas Young, spokesman for the school district, said no special limitations have been placed on faculty or students at the high school because of the mishap.

"It's business as usual," Young said.