A hospital employee has died after falling from the parking garage at Englewood Hospital, according to preliminary emergency reports. Police and emergency medical personnel responded to the area of Glenwood Road and North Dean Street shortly after noon on Wednesday following reports that a man had fallen from the structure.
Bergen County authorities are investigating what RLS Media described as a tragic incident at Englewood Hospital that reportedly claimed the life of a hospital employee, according to RLS Media. Initial reports indicated that the man had a pulse when emergency responders arrived. Subsequent emergency dispatch updates, however, reported that he had died.
Victim Identified Only as Hospital Employee
The reports identified the man as an employee of the hospital, though his identity has not been released, the outlet's report said. Officials have not publicly confirmed the circumstances surrounding the incident, and additional information remains limited, per the same account.
No agency has released details about what led to the fall, how long the man worked at the hospital, or the nature of the emergency response beyond the initial dispatch updates. Bergen County authorities have not issued a public statement addressing the case as of the report.
Hospital Parking Areas Carry Known Risks Nationally
Workplace violence and safety incidents in hospital parking structures have drawn national scrutiny in past years, though nothing in the available reporting ties those broader patterns to what happened in Englewood. A 2019 report citing FBI data found that parking garages and lots were the third most common location for assaults and homicides, trailing only private homes and streets, alleys, or sidewalks, according to heraldmailmedia.com. The same report noted that 378 of 5,542 homicides recorded nationwide in 2017 occurred in a parking lot or garage, with roughly 4 percent of personal assaults taking place in parking areas overall.
Separate reporting has found that oversight of these spaces has been inconsistent. A 2019 inspection of eight Milwaukee-area hospital parking structures turned up basic safety and security shortcomings at every one of them, and California recorded 218 violent incidents involving health care workers in hospital parking areas between July 2017 and December 2019, according to usatoday.com. That same reporting found that OSHA issued just 18 citations to health care employers between 1991 and 2014 for failing to address violence on their campuses, and that no federal agency tracks how many people have been killed or harmed in hospital parking garages nationwide.
Other hospital parking-garage incidents have made headlines in the region before. In February 2019, a man was found dead inside a vehicle in the parking deck of Beth Israel Hospital in Newark shortly before 8:30 a.m., according to NBC New York. Police said at the time that the incident was under investigation, although no criminal activity was suspected.
No further updates on the Englewood case had been released as of Wednesday afternoon. Officials have not said whether the man's death is being treated as accidental, and additional details are expected to emerge as Bergen County's investigation continues.
