California Father Dies After Being Crushed by Steel Plate at Disneyland Construction Site
A 37-year-old father is dead after a steel plate fell on him in a “tragic accident” near a backstage employee entrance at Disneyland Park in Anaheim, California, on Thursday morning.
A group of construction workers was installing large pipes in a trench just outside Disneyland when one of the pipes “accidentally struck a cross beam” and sent a metal plate down into the trench and onto the worker, Daron Wyatt, a spokesperson for the Anaheim Police Department, tells PEOPLE. The worker was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at a local hospital.
The man has been identified as Javier Jimenez, KABC reported. Authorities responded to the incident around 3:20 a.m. and Jimenez was rushed to a local hospital where he died after going into cardiac arrest, according to KABC.
“Javier was a devoted boyfriend, loving father and stepfather, an amazing son, brother and friend,” Angelina Arambula wrote of Jimenez on a GoFundMe page set up to cover funeral costs. “His family was the most important thing to him. There was no father like him. He lived an extraordinary life and his memories will live with us forever.”
The Orange County Coroner’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from PEOPLE. California’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating the incident, Wyatt says.
Jimenez, of West Covina, was part of the Whiting-Turner Contracting Co. and pronounced dead at 4:13 a.m. at the UC Irvine Medical Center in Orange, according to the Engineering News-Record.
Disneyland Resort released a statement to PEOPLE in the wake of the death.
“We are saddened by this tragic accident involving a contractor and on behalf of Disneyland Resort extend our deepest sympathies to Mr. Jimenez’s family, friends and coworkers,” Liz Jaeger, Disneyland Resort spokeswoman, says in the statement.
