Jersey City construction worker dead after being hit by falling tape measure

JERSEY CITY, NJ (WABC) -- A construction worker died after he was hit by falling debris from a building in Jersey City Monday morning.

The worker, identified as 58-year-old Gary Anderson, of Summerdale, had just arrived at the site, at the corner of Marine Boulevard and Christopher Columbus Drive.

Anderson was hit by a tape measure that fell from the building as he was walking underneath it around 8:45 a.m. He was delivering sheet rock and had pulled onto the site from the Christopher Columbus Drive entrance, parked and got out of his truck. He was not wearing a safety helmet.

He was in serious, non-responsive condition at the scene, and then rushed to the Jersey City Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead just before 10 a.m.

The tape measure weighed approximately 1 pound, and officials say it fell from the 50th floor off the belt of another worker. The tape measure fell 50 stories, bounced off a piece of metal construction equipment about 10 feet off the ground and then hit the man in the head.

The site was shut down, and the investigation is ongoing.