Construction Worker Recovers $550,000 After Fall Down Elevator Shaft

Construction Worker Recovers $550,000 After Fall Down Elevator Shaft job site A worker who sustained fracture vertebrae when he fell down an open elevator shaft at a Jersey Shore Jobsite was paid a $550,000 settlement in his Monmouth County suit, Valdivia-Salinas v. Meccia Building & Remodeling Inc., on Nov. 4. On Sept. 17, 2018, plaintiff Aquiles Valdivia-Salinas was working on a residential construction site on Ninth Avenue in Belmar, sanding door jambs on the third floor of the single-family home, when he fell down an exposed elevator shaft, fracturing several vertebrae. Valdivia-Salinas—currently 44, a Nicaraguan immigrant—underwent emergency fusion surgery at the thoracic and lumbar levels of his spine, according to his lawyer, Richard Reinartz of the Reinartz Law Firm in Hackensack.