Floor collapses during casino construction

CINCINNATI -- A floor collapsed into a V shape Friday at the construction site of a new casino, sending workers sliding down to the ground and injuring at least a dozen of them.

Authorities said there were no life-threatening injuries in the collapse, which came just weeks after a similar accident at a Cleveland casino with the same developer.

The collapse occurred shortly before 8 a.m. as a crew was pouring cement for a section of what will be the casino's second floor, Steve Rosenthal, of casino co-developer Rock Gaming Llc, said Friday. It was too soon to determine what caused the collapse, he said.

Fire Chief Richard Braun said that a beam supporting the floor "sheared away" and the floor came down while the workers were on top of it.

"They basically rode the V down," Braun said. No one was underneath the 60-foot-by-60-foot section of floor.

The injured were sent to hospitals with what appeared to be mostly bruises and bumps, and possibly some broken bones, he said.

Cincinnati-based Messer Construction Co. has a clean safety record with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration since 2006, according to the agency's database.

OSHA inspectors, as well as investigators from the state, were looking into the accident.

The casino is being developed by Rock Gaming in partnership with Caesar's Entertainment. The same team is behind a casino project in downtown Cleveland where a garage partially collapsed on Dec. 16. A 60-foot-by-60-foot second-level section of the parking deck gave way while concrete was being poured. No one was injured.

There is "absolutely zero connection" between the collapse in Cincinnati and the accident in Cleveland, Rosenthal asserted. "These are two different construction management companies, two different contractors, two different sites, two different areas."

Horseshoe Casino Cincinnati, a $400 million project, is expected to open in spring 2013, an official said this week.