The Friday morning routine in downtown Boston took a jarring turn when a delivery worker plunged about 20 feet through a roadway grating on School Street beside the Omni Parker House and had to be hauled out in a technical rescue by firefighters. Despite the terrifying drop, the worker stayed conscious and kept talking with first responders before being taken to Boston EMS for evaluation, and officials said the injuries were not considered life-threatening. Yellow police tape ringed the opening as crews secured the scene and investigators started trying to figure out what went wrong.
Boston firefighters were called shortly after 7 a.m. and found the delivery person at the bottom of the opening, according to NBC Boston. District Fire Chief Mike McCarthy said crews set up for a technical rescue, lowered a ladder, secured the worker in a harness and helped him climb back out before turning him over to Boston EMS. "He was conscious and alert and was talking to members of the fire department and Boston EMS the entire time," McCarthy said.
Where the rescue unfolded
The collapse happened along the side of the Omni Parker House on School Street in the heart of downtown Boston. The Omni Parker House website lists the hotel’s address as 60 School Street. The incident added a real-world exclamation point to the hazards that street-level workers face in the city, which recently adopted a "Road Safety and Accountability for Delivery Providers" ordinance aimed at curbing risky behavior and improving safety on public ways, according to Boston.gov.
What comes next
As of Friday morning, officials had not publicly identified a cause for the grating failure, and no formal statement on ownership or responsibility had been released, according to NBC Boston. Authorities kept the area taped off while first responders and investigators remained on scene, and officials said they expected the delivery person to be OK.
