A construction worker has died after he fell from the 53rd floor of an unfinished downtown Los Angeles skyscraper yesterday.
The building will rank as the tallest building on the US West Coast when completed next year.
A spokesman for the building's contractor said the man's death marked the first fatality on the site of the two-year-old, $1 billion Wilshire Grand project, which is being developed by Korean Airlines.
Details of the fatal fall were not immediately available, but the man's body struck a vehicle on the street below, fire department spokeswoman Margaret Stewart said.
A woman who was driving the vehicle was uninjured but was taken to hospital for evaluation as a precaution.
Ms Stewart said circumstances of the incident were under investigation by police.
Los Angeles Times photographer Mel Melcon, who was at the site, told the newspaper he heard a loud thump, then glimpsed the man's body on the ground, lying off the driver's side of a car.
Rising 73 storeys into the Los Angeles skyline, the hotel and office tower will measure 335m high, including a spire affixed to the stop of the building in a design that will make it the tallest structure west of the Mississippi.
That distinction currently belongs to the US Bank Tower, located a few blocks away.
The Wilshire Grand is slated for completion early next year.
Construction began in earnest in February 2014 with the laying of the foundation in what was then certified by the Guinness World Records as the largest continuous pour of concrete.
