UPDATE: Stop Work Order Issued At Beachwood Shopping Center After Worker Killed

by Patricia A. Miller

An accident waiting to happen.

For years, that’s what many said about the battered Beachwood Shopping Center. Overhangs sagged, some supports were buckled, windows were smashed.

Sheet metal and glass flew through the air at the height of Superstorm Sandy, forcing fighters to lay hose from a distance, across Route 9 to avoid being injured.

But no one was hurt. No one was hurt until yesterday, when 52-year-old Raymond Crosby of Keansburg died at the scene when a roof collapsed.

He died during the demolition of the shopping center, which has been underway for several weeks and will likely take another several weeks to complete.

Crosby was a member of the Piscataway-based Edgewood Properties, which had been contract to demolish the eyesore. The crew’s foreman called police after the collapse.

All was silent at the site on Friday. An orange stop work order was taped to the fence.

Berkeley Township police and Bayville Fire Company 17 responded. Bayville Fire Company members recovered Crosby - who was unresponsive - at 2:58 p.m. He was pronounced dead at the scene at 3:02 p.m.

Members of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration will handle the investigation into the cause of the collapse and all follow up in the case, Ocean County Prosecutor‘s Office spokesman Al Della Fave said.

OSHA has already opened an investigation, said spokesperson Leni Fortson. It’s up to Edgewood Properties on whether to halt work on the site, she said.

OSHA has up to six months to issue a decision, but it doesn’t always take that long, she said.

The shopping center and the surrounding area had been fenced in for several years after Berkeley Fire Code official Jack Wiegarter found a number of dangerous conditions at the site.

Berkeley Township officials battled with owner Priscilla Oughton for years about demolishing the site, long a Bayville eyesore. Oughton finally agreed this year and the demolition work began this summer.

Come back to Patch later for more information.

Photo credit: Steve Baeli