A massive metal plate hit a construction worker Friday sending him flying into a giant hole, about 60 feet below street level, firefighters said.
The construction worker was working on a ladder in an excavated hole at Crown Point and Honeycutt at about 10 a.m. Friday.
“They were directing in a metal plate, a big thick metal plate that was about 20 feet by 20 feet and it accidentally struck the worker. He fell from the ladder some 20 feet down into the hole,” San Diego Fire and Rescue spokesperson Maurice Luque said.
The worker was already working about 40 feet below street level when the accident happened, then he fell an extra 20 feet. Firefighters had to hoist him in a basket using a ladder as rails.
“They put together a rigging system that allowed them to bring him up about 60 feet from the hole,” Luque said. “He was conscious, he was talking, but he was in a great deal of pain.”
The worker was taken to a local hospital with moderate injuries.
