Man Killed in Edison Scaffolding Collapse Identified

Edison, NJ - A 36-year-old man who died Saturday afternoon in a scaffolding collapse in Edison Township was identified Thursday by police as New Brunswick resident Julio Perez.

Perez was working as a laborer at the NU World Beauty Supply warehouse in the Heller Industrial Park on a Mill Road when a section of steel scaffolding accidentally collapsed, killing him, police said. The scaffolding fell on him at 4:10 p.m. and he was declared dead at the scene. Police had withheld the victim's identity until Thursday pending notification of his wife and other relatives, who live in Guatemala.

Witnesses told investigating Edison police officer Michael Gallant that Perez was one of several laborers who were disassembling the scaffolding when the accident happened. None of the other workers were injured, managing to move out of harm's way just before the collapse, police said. Police are not ruling the accident as suspicious.

In addition to Edison police and firefighters, paramedics from JFK Medical Center, the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Fatal Accident Investigation Unit and representatives from OSHA responded to the accident scene. Patch has been compiling a list of all the industrial accidents that happened in and near Middlesex County so far in 2016:

• On Aug. 24, a man's hand got caught in a compactor at the Renaissance Hotel on Rt. 1 in Woodbridge.
• On Aug. 8, a 69 year-old man in Linden was working with a table saw when his right thumb and index finger were struck with the saw. The index finger was nearly severed and the thumb was severely injured. This accident occurred at the American Mika Corporation on Pennsylvania Avenue.
• A Newark man was killed in January, also on Pennsylvania Avenue in Linden, when his clothing became caught in a lathe, a machine that rotates an item on its axis. He was dragged into the machinery and sustained serious injuries to his head and arm. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
• In February, a Laurence Harbor man was seriously injured when an 80,000-pound I-beam fell on his leg, crushing it at Matty’s On-Site LLC in Sayreville. The man survived that accident.