David Monroe, director of San Antonio Museum of Science and Technology at Port San Antonio, was killed in a Sept. 19 accident at the Boeing Center while moving a jet engine.
San Antonio Express-News file photo
An exterior of Boeing Center at Tech Port in San Antonio.
San Antonio Express-News file photo
The San Antonio Police Department cited a “rushed” job and “several apparent oversights” as factors in a September accident at Port San Antonio that left a prolific inventor and entrepreneur dead.
David Monroe, the founder and CEO of the San Antonio Museum of Science and Technology, was killed when a jet engine that he and a colleague were unloading fell onto him at a loading dock at Boeing Center at Tech Port. The engine was to be used as an exhibit.
Article continues below this ad
Police records released to the San Antonio Express-News give new details of the mishap that killed 72-year-old Monroe and left co-worker, Adam Ortiz, traumatized. A federal workplace safety probe into the accident is still ongoing.
RELATED: OSHA investigating death of San Antonio inventor, museum founder at Boeing Center
The SAPD concluded there was “no criminal element,” but the “unloading seemed to be rushed” and “several apparent oversights occurred” as the men moved the 5,000-pound jet engine that was on a dolly from a truck to the loading dock.
San Antonio Express News Logo
Make us a Preferred Source on Google to see more of us when you search.
Add Preferred Source
According to Jason Spraggins, SAPD homicide detective, the oversights included not confirming the brake on the dolly was set or the loading dock ramp was locked, moving the truck while the load remained on the dock ramp and not waiting for more help.
Article continues below this ad
Surveillance footage showed the engine “sitting on the loading dock, still partially on the moveable steel ramp,” Spraggins wrote. Monroe appeared “to be struggling with the locking mechanism on the ramp as the truck pulls away.”
When the truck moved away, the ramp was no longer supported and began to lower, according to the report. The unsecured dolly began to roll toward Monroe who was at the front of the ramp nearest the truck.
READ MORE: For San Antonio tech pioneer David Monroe, science was ‘more exciting’ than sci-fi
“Along with not waiting for the help that was reportedly forthcoming, this series of apparent mistakes resulted in the engine and dolly falling into an uncontrollable, rolling (descent) from which the victim was unable to escape,” wrote Spraggins.
Article continues below this ad
Monroe “turns as it approaches and appears to grab onto it. He doesn’t appear able to stop the engine or get out of its path before falling backwards from the platform behind the weight of the 2.5 ton object,” the detective wrote. “The engine and dolly crash down on top of David as he lands on his back. David is instantly motionless.”
Ortiz, who regularly helped Monroe move heavy items, had “pulled the truck away from the ramp, unaware that there were any issues” until “he heard the loud crash,” wrote Spraggins.
“He then dismounted the truck to find his coworker and acquaintance of 5 years, (Monroe), underneath the fallen engine,” the detective wrote.
READ NEXT: A prolific inventor was fatally crushed. His heirs are sorting out his estate in court.
Article continues below this ad
Glenn Galindo, warehouse manager at the Boeing Center, told Spraggins he’d seen the men unloading the engine and told them “to stop and wait so he could get more help,” according to the report. He “went inside to get help and came back to find that the event had already occurred.”
The Occupational Health and Safety Administration is past its six-month timeline for completing its investigation into the mishap and is expected to release its findings soon. Monroe’s was the first work-related death at Port San Antonio since the agency’s online records began in 2011.
Monroe, a prolific inventor, is credited with creating the cellphone camera. He also held key roles at Datapoint, a San Antonio company that in the 1970s helped develop an early personal computer, and won more than 50 patents covering microcomputer processors, wireless networks and other electronics.
Article continues below this ad
The museum he founded has several facilities on Port San Antonio in addition to its space in the Boeing Center, which is known as Area 21.
Monroe died without a will. His estate is in probate court in Bexar County, where his son, Adam Monroe of Chandler, Ariz., and his widow, Lorena Monroe, have filed pleadings. She was Monroe’s third wife after two earlier unions ended in divorce.