Posted Friday, February 19. 2010

www.Fayobserver.com

CLINTON – One person is dead and two more were in critical condition after the trusses of a church roof under construction collapsed Thursday afternoon.

Sampson County Interim County Manager Susan Holder said the accident happened around 4:25 p.m. at Mt. Vernon Baptist Church on the 3700 block of Faison Highway northeast of Clinton.

Holder said the two surviving construction workers were taken by helicopter to UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill, where they were in critical condition Thursday evening. All three victims worked for Clifton Halso Construction of Chinquapin.

The names of the workers were being withheld, Holder said, until the family of the deceased is notified and until the N.C. Department of Labor determines the cause of the accident.

The workers were working on the roof of what was planned to be a new sanctuary for the church, Holder said.