• June 15

21 Rio Accident - Updated

21 Rio Accident Claims 3 Lives

Last Wednesday, June 10th, a tragic industrial accident claimed 3 lives and left another worker shaken up when a scaffold partially collapsed around the 12th floor of the new 21 Rio apartments in West Campus.  The high-rise is scheduled to open soon and will feature its first major wave of move-ins in August of this year, and is located at 21st and Rio Grande. After arriving on the scene early that afternoon, emergency crews determined that an equipment failure was the cause of the accident, and three workers were pronounced dead a bit later that afternoon at Brackenridge Hospital.  Two of the workers fell all the way to the ground while another landed on the roof of the parking garage about 4 stories higher.  The fourth worker miraculously jumped from the collapsing scaffolding to the building and survived with only minor injuries.

APD, in conjunction with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, have embarked on a collaborative effort to determine the cause of the failure and further investigate the incident.  The tower was evacuated and the street was closed off shortly following the incident to protect the other workers and ensure that onlookers were safe.  All construction has been stopped as well.

The identities of the three workers who died in the accident have now been released by the APD: Wilson Joel Irias Cerritos, 31, and Jesus Angel Lopez, 28, from Honduras, and Raudel Ramirez Camacho, 27, from Mexico.  Other than this recent information no additional details have been released about the cause of the accident.

To learn more about this terrible accident, check out coverage at UT Austin’s award winning newspaper, the Daily Texan, at their website here.

For more information about UT Austin Real Estate or any other Austin Real Estate, please check us out online. We’re your information source for UT Austin real estate, West Campus property, North Campus property, and property management. To get connected with an agent immediately, call 512.472.9378 or email info@westcampusliving dot com.




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Patrick Courtney

Patrick Courtney

Patrick Courtney is the VP of Operations for West Campus Living. To Lease, Buy, Sell, or Invest in the UT Austin area, you can contact Patrick @westcampusliving.com. West Campus Living is the premier real estate company providing apartments, houses, condos, and property management to the area surrounding the University of Texas at Austin. A proud part of the UT Austin community, West Campus Living is the local expert for off-campus housing for UT Austin, and has been featured in the Austin Business Journal, Study Breaks Magazine, and the University of Texas' newspaper, the Daily Texan, which named West Campus Living the number one real estate company for both 2008 and 2009.