Coroner IDs teen who died after partially built retail site collapsed during storm
BROWNSBURG, Ind. (WISH) — A teenage boy has died after being injured Monday when winds from a storm damaged a partially built strip mall and gas station, according to a spokesman for the Brownsburg Fire District.
The Marion County Coroner’s Office Thursday night identified the victim as 14-year-old Edwin Campos-Martinez. The coroner listed his cause of death as a lack of oxygen to the brain following an industrial accident.
Emergency crews were called to a structure collapse shortly before 3:45 p.m. Monday in a commercial area under construction near the intersection of Northfield Drive and State Road 267.
Ryan Miller, deputy chief of operations for the Brownsburg Fire Territory, said that four people were taken to area hospitals after the building collapse. Campos-Martinez was taken to Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis, where he died. The child’s identity has not been released.
Sunny Singh, the owner of Singh Construction, on Monday told News 8 that the teen was part of the framing subcontractor’s crew on the site. Singh said the strong winds came at the wrong time of construction and nothing else could be done. News 8 reached out to Singh Construction on Thursday by email for any further comment.
Miller said Monday that the short-lived storm had “a tremendous amount of rain” and “came through with quite a bit of power.”
Authorities told the National Weather Service that tree limbs in the area of the building collapse were downed by the 60 mph winds.
Brownsburg’s building inspector and the Indiana Occupational Safety and Health Administration were expected to investigate the building collapse. IOSHA did not immediately reply to an email from News 8 to see if an investigation is underway.
The structure collapse came about 13 minutes after the weather service issued a “significant weather advisory” that included Hendricks County. The advisory suggested winds in excess of 40 mph were possible with the approaching storm. The storm also included frequent cloud-to-ground lightning, the advisory said. About 10 minutes after the structure collapse in Brownsburg, the weather service issued a severe thunderstorm warning, which lasted until 4:27 p.m.