KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Those who knew Jose Rodolfo Garcias-Sanchez are concerned with the work conditions they say led to his death.
Garcias-Sanchez, 34, was performing asbestos abatement work on July 17 when he fell fourteen stories from an elevator shaft and died, Kansas City, Missouri, police confirmed.
His family said he was born in Nicaragua, but was living in Indiana at the time of his death. He was in Kansas City, Missouri, to perform the work at the old AT&T building located at 500 E. 8th Street.
Safety concerns at job site
Carlos Garcia was friends with Garcias-Sanchez and said they met about a month ago.
Before his death, Garcia said he heard concerns from employees about the work conditions at the building, specifically the lighting.
"They said that there was no lighting," Garcia said. "The only lighting they had was where they were working, but going in the building, or on any other floor, or going on the stairs, everybody had to have a flash light or their cell phones out to light up."
Garcia is veteran in blue-collar work, and said he's been on hundreds of job sites throughout his life that he deemed to be safe.
But he believes this isn't one, and during an interview with KSHB 41, Garcia showed us how a fence surrounding the building wasn't locked for the night.
"Just like right now with the fencing, how it's just wide-open? There's no lock on this fence," Garcia said. "No one's here and this fence is wide-open. Anyone can come in, I don't understand that, how?"
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration confirmed its investigating three companies related to the incident:
- Infinity Resources Enterprises, a temp agency who Garcias-Sanchez was working for;
- New Horizons LLC., who was performing the work under contract;
- The Bernstein Companies, who owns the building
Garcia believes the companies have been "brushing it [the death] under the carpet."
Going forward, Garcia hopes the companies will do more to prevent these kind of accidents.
"How [does] a guy falls [14-stories down] and nothing really mattered?" Garcia said. "I'm just here to speak up for him because he doesn't have no family here."
KCMO City Council gets involved
On Thursday morning, members of the KCMO City Council gathered outside the building with hopes of holding the companies involved accountable.
"Today we're standing up for Rodolfo Garcia," KCMO Mayor Quinton Lucas said. "What we're trying to do is, make sure that every contractor, every builder in our city knows the city will hold them to account in protecting workers' rights."
KSHB 41 News reached out to all three companies multiple times this week and didn't hear back before this story was published.
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