Construction Accident Hospitalizes Worker

A forty-seven-year-old Chenowee man was hospitalized with multiple injuries on Tuesday following an accidental fall at a construction site on Frozen Creek.

Woodrow “Woody” Barker, of Molands Drive, was transported to the hospital by a Breathitt-Wolfe Ambulance crew after he was removed from the basement of the structure.

According to sources, Barker was working on the second floor of a new home being constructed by Built Rite Construction for Brandon and Whitney Haddix on Cope Fork of Frozen Creek at Keck. 

Witnesses at the scene reported that Barker accidentally stepped backwards into an unfinished stairway and fell “ten to twelve” feet from the upper floor to the concrete basement of the newly erected structure shortly after 1:00 p.m. on March 3.  Barker landed on his legs and then fell into the concrete wall of the home's basement.

Workers onsite with Barker rushed to his aid and helped stabilize him until an emergency medical crew arrived on the scene at 389 Highway 540.

He sustained multiple injuries to his head, legs, and body, and reportedly was going “in and out of consciousness.”

Coworkers on site reported that Barker was in the home's basement and that “there was no access to get to him.”

Fire crews from the Vancleve Fire Department were dispatched to the location and requested manpower and equipment assistance from the Jackson Fire Department. 

The severity of Barker’s injuries led ambulance personnel to request transport by helicopter, but medical flight crews declined to fly due to low cloud cover over most of eastern Kentucky.

Medical workers and construction workers managed to load Barker onto a backboard and get him out of the basement just as the first fire crew arrived at the accident site.

Barker was treated at the scene for his critical injuries and transported by ambulance to the Kentucky River Medical Center.  No reports of his condition have been released.