Worker, 45, dies in fall from bridge
BY MICHAEL ACKER
Staff Writer

SAYREVILLE - A 45-year-old construction worker died Saturday morning when he fell while working on the Alfred E. Driscoll Bridge.

Thomas W. Oset, of Manville, Somerset County, was carrying 2-by-4 planks that were 12 feet in length when the boards that formed a temporary walkway broke, causing him to fall at 8:23 a.m. Officials said he fell 96 feet, landing on a concrete barrier under the bridge.

Federal officials are investigating the worker's death, which is being categorized as an industrial accident, according to New Jersey State Police Sgt. Stephen Jones. Toxicology results from the autopsy will not be complete for some time, Jones said, but it is believed that the cause of death was blunt force trauma.

The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating the incident.

"OSHA will follow up with a forensic examination of the board to determine why it did break," Jones said.

Robert Kulick, area director of the Avenel office of OSHA, told the Suburban that his office is investigating to determine what the construction company has done to comply with OSHA standards. It is also looking into what Oset was doing at the time of the incident.

"We are looking at that whole construction site to see exactly what that individual was doing," Kulick said.

Oset was working for Conti Construction, of South Plainfield, at the time. Construction workers are currently refurbishing the bridge, which crosses the Raritan River between Sayreville and Woodbridge.