PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said the man suspected of a hit-and-run crash that killed a Pinellas County deputy Thursday night along I-275 was an undocumented migrant who was captured Friday morning.
According to Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, Deputy Michael Hartwick, 51, was working a traffic detail on I-275 to provide safety and security for the ongoing construction along the road when Hartwick was hit and killed by Archer Western employee Juan Ariel Molina-Salles.
Archer Western is now dealing with its second fatality in a construction zone in less than a year.
The company was cited for serious safety violations in 2021 after an employee was crushed to death by falling concrete. The death happened during the Pinellas Gateway Expressway project on October 6, 2021.
According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, a 47-year-old carpenter was working near a crane when a "twenty-eight-foot section of concrete fell onto and pinned the employee against the wall of the trench box. The employee was killed by chest injuries sustained."
The investigation concluded that Archer Western, "violated safety standards by allowing workers to remain in a crane load's danger zone."
The report stated that the victim was working with five other employees inside a trench box cutting concrete piles used to build footers for elevated lanes of the expressway. The concrete pile that hit the 47-year-old "was attached to a crane with a damaged wire rope sling. During the cutting, the pile broke free and struck the worker."
"Archer Western could have prevented this tragic incident if they had taken the necessary steps to identify and mitigate safety hazards," said OSHA Area Office Director Danelle Jindra in Tampa, Florida. "Workers deserve to start each workday without worrying whether they will return home unharmed. Employers have an obligation to follow safety standards to protect their workers from all known hazards."
ABC Action News reporter Michael Paluska called and e-mailed Archer Western for comment Friday, but never heard back. At their office in Tampa, an employee said someone from Human Resources would come out and talk to us but never showed. They closed the blinds while we waited outside patiently for a comment.
In 2018, according to the Miami ABC affiliate, WPLG, Archer Western was cited after two workers died after a concrete barrier collapsed.
According toWPLG, federal officials said a construction company did not do enough to protect its workers before a concrete barrier collapsed and killed two men along Interstate 95. The Florida Highway Patrol said Abel Orlando Zuniga-Fajardo, 37, and Osman Aldubin Montalvan-Ardon, 33, were in a trench repairing drainage pipes around 3 a.m. on February 4 when one of the cement retaining walls fell on top of them.
The Florida Department of Transportation has not responded to requests for comment on Friday's death or about Archer Western.
According to Gualtieri, the driver of the front loader, Molina-Salles, 32, of Honduras. Molina-Salles is an undocumented immigrant and faces a charge of leaving the scene of an accident with a death. It's punishable by up to 30 years in prison, with a minimum mandatory sentence of four years in prison if convicted. Molina-Salles was scheduled to be moved to the Pinellas County Jail Friday afternoon. There's also an immigration hold on Molina-Salles if he is given a bond on the local charge.
Gualtieri said the Archer Western workers at the construction site lied to law enforcement and gave fake names.
"There were a lot of people out there; the majority of them were lying to us. They were giving us false names and hindering the investigation," Gualtieri said. "You got a bunch of illegals working for this state contractor out there who shouldn't be here and shouldn't be working and shouldn't be out there doing this."
Archer Western has not responded to multiple requests for comment. When we went to their office in Tampa they closed the blinds and turned off the lights.
According to OSHA:
Archer Western – De Moya JV II is a joint venture between Chicago’s The Walsh Group, it's subsidiary Archer Western of Atlanta and The De Moya Group Inc. of Miami. The Florida Department of Transportation Pinellas Gateway Expressway is one of the largest Tampa Bay area construction projects to date. The two-part project consists of constructing two new two-lane elevated tolled roadways that will provide direct connections between U.S. 19 and I-275 and between the Bayside Bridge north of 49th Street North and I-275 in Pinellas County.
