Federal officials will investigate a workplace disaster that killed two workers in Atlanta on Thursday.

According to a report by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, two men were performing maintenance tasks to apartment homes on a residential block in the early afternoon when the incident occurred. The reports indicates they were extended about 40 feet high when the mobile lift they were operating got stuck.  In attempt to move the lift, it crashed to the ground below.  The two men involved were later identified as 29-year-old Rigoberto Lopez from Marietta and 42-year-old Karlos Turner of Dallas. Both men were transported to Grady Memorial Hospital where they died after sustaining serious injuries.

According to two reports conducted by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses and the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, there were 4,547 fatal work-related injuries across all sectors in 2010.  Of all workplace related deaths, 635 occurred due to falls and 732 because of contact with equipment.

Representatives from the United States Occupational Health and Safety Administration will try to uncover why the piece of heavy equipment collapsed and killed the two workers in an effort to better understand how to prevent fatal workplace injuries.