http://www.yourlawyer.com/topics/overview/construction_accidents Sat, 21 Nov 2009 04:20:00 -0800 pixel-app en http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/15794 Tue, 06 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800 http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/15794 New York City crane collapse that killed seven people last year.  According to a report on Newsday.com, Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau said William Rapetti's "reckless and negligent rigging practices" led to the fatal accident last March at a construction site in Midtown.

The crane collapse occurred on the east side of midtown Manhattan the afternoon of March 18.  The crane was being used in the construction of a  43-story luxury apartment building.  The crane broke into pieces as it crashed down onto 51st street, not far from the United Nations Building.  Several buildings were damaged in the New York crane collapse, and residents in about 300 apartments in 17 buildings were evacuated. The accident killed six workers from the construction site, as well as a Florida woman visiting the city who was staying with a friend in the destroyed townhouse.

Rapetti, the owner of Rapetti Rigging Services in Massapequa Park, was indicted, arraigned and released on $75,000 bail yesterday, Newsday said.  He pled not guilty to the charges.

According to Newsday, Morganthau charged that Rapetti failed to properly stabilize the crane to a condo tower under construction.  The District Attorney said the accident was the result of Rapetti's decision to use four protective slings - not eight as should have been done - to lift a six-ton piece of steel up the crane.  One of the slings used was defective and snapped while raising the crane.  Morganthau said the accident could have "easily been avoided" had the proper number of slings been used.

Rapetti is not the only person to face criminal charges as a result of the March crane collapse.  A few days after the accident, Buildings Department inspector Edward Marquette was arrested on charges of falsifying business records and offering a false instrument for filing. Marquette was an inspector in the building department’s division of cranes and derricks.  A complaint about the doomed crane was logged March 4 to a city hot line, officials said, and Marquette said he inspected it. It was later determined he had not.

According to Newsday, in September, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined Rapetti's company $220,000 and issued three willful violations - the most severe - for failing to inspect the slings and failing to follow proper procedure when raising or lowering a crane.

]]> http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/15498 Wed, 12 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800 http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/15498 two deadly crane collapses that in Manhattan earlier this year killed nine people.

New York wasn’t the only city to experience crane accidents this year, the AP notes.  Houston, Miami, and Las Vegas also saw accidents, which prompted the federal government in September to propose updated crane regulations for the first time in four decades, reports the AP.  New York introduced stricter rules governing constructions, adding to those required by the federal government that include laws requiring training for tower crane workers, limiting the use of slings that hold loads, and overhauling licensing requirements for mobile crane operators.  “We have worked closely with industry officials to develop checks and balances that are making construction sites safer than ever before," city Department of Buildings spokesman Kate Lindquist said. "There are thousands of construction sites in New York City that are managed without incident every day, and there is no reason why developers cannot build safely to avoid any preventable delays."

Manhattan’s construction industry disagrees, saying that the new rules “are difficult to follow, hard to enforce, and often cause costly delays,” reports the AP.  Contractors point out that construction sites are often shut down for days or weeks for minor violations, such as a missing piece of paperwork.  Shutting down construction at a high-profile site can cost in excess of $100,000 daily.  "In some respects, it's already overkill," said Louis Coletti, president of New York's Building Trades Employers Association. "You've got new rules and regulations coming out every day."

But, a crane crashed into a town house in midtown Manhattan on March 15.  That accident caused the death of seven people.  A crane still has not returned to that development site.  In the May 30th crash, two workers were killed.  A crane was finally re-erected in September.  The AP reported that work stopped at both sites for months, and the second site was ordered to stop again last week over a missing permit.  The AP also reports that, “Coletti said contractors have received orders from multiple inspectors with conflicting interpretations of building codes, and finding an inspector to lift an order can be as challenging as fixing the violation.”

Contractors are specifically angry over a requirement that engineers or manufacturers certify plans to raise tower cranes, the AP reports.  Contractors say professionals likely will not approve plans for work they can not supervise.  Alfred G. Gerosa, executive director of the Cement League, whose members often contract crane work, said in September that the rule could "shut down the entire tower crane industry in the city," the AP reported.  Also in the AP report, Frank Bardonaro, president of a suburban Philadelphia crane rental company and head of the Specialized Carriers & Rigging Association's crane safety task force, called New York's rules "unenforceable."

Regardless, according to the AP, Manhattan says the regulations are standard across the construction industry and are needed to maintain safety.

]]> http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/15285 Wed, 08 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/15285
Michael Sackaris, 48, of St. James, is the chief of Nu-Way Crane Service, according to authorities.  Sackaris and another employee were arrested yesterday after they were indicted on bribery charges; Nu-Way also was indicted and Sackaris was charged with threatening a witness.  The City Department of Investigation initiated a probe of the buildings department's cranes and derricks division following the deaths of nine people in two crane collapses this year.

Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau's office said that James DeLayo, 60, of the Bronx, sold Sackaris copies of the crane exam at least twice Morgenthau’s office also said that Sackaris paid DeLayo $200 to $500 approximately 26 times from 2002 to 2007 to either falsify inspection reports or certify that Nu-Way crane operators passed exams.  Prosecutors also said that Nu-Way crane operator Michael Pascalli, 24, of Bethpage, received credit for passing exams he never took.

DeLayo, who is also a former acting chief inspector, was arrested in June after he admitted to taking bribes, officials reported.  Meanwhile, according to his attorney, DeLayo says that he believes he has not done anything wrong.  His attorney cited Delayo’s 30 years of service to the City of New York.

All three—DeLayo, Sackaris and Pascalli—pleaded not guilty yesterday in State Supreme Court in Manhattan; Sackaris was held on $10,000 bail and DeLayo and Pascalli were released without bail.  DeLayo, Sackaris, Pascalli, and Nu-Way were charged with numerous counts of records tampering, filing false instruments, and falsifying business records.  DeLayo was also charged with receiving a bribe; Nu-Way, Sackaris and Pascalli were charged with bribery; Sackaris was charged with intimidating a witness, a felony, and for confronting a witness to the bribery scheme at a Suffolk nightclub in August, prosecutors said.

A Nu-Way crane at a site in Manhattan is scheduled for inspection, and another in Brooklyn is undergoing load tests, a Buildings Department spokesman said.  "Every Nu-Way crane received a comprehensive inspection following the allegations, and we are closely monitoring their active jobs," buildings commissioner-designate Robert LiMandri said.

Meanwhile, New York City has implemented new construction crane regulations aimed at preventing the types of crane collapse accidents responsible for this year’ nine deaths.  The city’s construction contractors say this will result in temporary layoffs of construction workers.  The most recent collapse occurred in May, when a 200 foot crane fell about 30, killing two and seriously injuring a worker.  Seven other people were killed in a crane collapse in March, just a couple of miles south of May’s tragedy.  Following that incident, a city inspector—who allegedly lied about inspecting the doomed crane in the weeks before the collapse—was arrested for falsifying records. The March crane collapse also led to the resignation of New York City Buildings Commissioner Patricia Lancaster.

]]> http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/15180 Mon, 22 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/15180 crane collapse accidents that have killed nine people so far this year.  But the city's construction contractors aren't happy, and say the new regulations - which are effective immediately - will result in temporary layoffs of construction workers.  

The new rules come in the wake of two horrible crane accidents that occurred this past spring.  The most recent collapse occurred in May, when a 200 foot crane perched atop a high-rise under construction collapsed and fell about 30 stories to the ground below. In addition to the two fatalities, a third worker was seriously injured.  A large portion of an adjacent high-rise apartment building was destroyed as well.  The investigation into that crane collapse is said to be focusing on a rebuilt part that may have failed. The Manhattan District Attorneys’ office has also launched a criminal probe into the incident.

Seven other people were killed because of a crane collapse that occurred in March, just a couple of miles south of May’s tragedy.  Following that incident, a city inspector - who allegedly had lied about inspecting the doomed crane in the weeks before the collapse - was arrested for falsifying records. The March crane collapse also led to the resignation of New York City Buildings Commissioner Patricia Lancaster.

The new rules cover the approval of permits to raise a tower crane. According to The New York Times, the regulations require that engineers or crane manufacturers provide detailed rigging plans for raising a crane, and certify the actual work, which is now done by licensed master riggers under a plan approved by a professional engineer. The rigging plan would include a detailed outline of how sections of a crane are raised at a construction site as work proceeds higher and higher.

Representatives for the construction industry told The New York Times that the new rules took them by surprise, and were implemented without any industry consultation.   Louis Coletti, head of the Building Trades Employers Association, which represents 1,700 steel and concrete workers, said in an interview that implementing the new rules immediately is "unrealistic".

At least 1,000 workers may be off the job next week because contractors won't have approval to hoist cranes this weekend, Coletti said.  Other construction industry officials told The New York Times that the new rules could cause 2,400 union laborers to be laid off at least  temporarily.

]]> http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/15144 Tue, 16 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/15144 New York City crane collapse that killed 7 people has issued citations to three construction companies.  In doing so, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) fined the companies a total of $313,500.

The New York City crane collapse occurred on the east side of midtown Manhattan the afternoon of March 15.  The crane was being used in the construction of a  43-story luxury apartment building.  The crane broke into pieces as it crashed down onto 51st street, not far from the United Nations Building.  The crane collapse destroyed a townhouse, and seriously damaged five other buildings.  The New York City crane collapse killed six workers from the construction site, as well as a Florida woman visiting the city who was staying with a friend in the destroyed townhouse.

Yesterday, OSHA announced it was citing Reliance Contractors Group, the general contractor; Rapetti Rigging Services, Inc., the crane erector; and Joy Contractors Inc., the concrete subcontractor on the project, in the accident.  The charges against the companies included failure to properly train employees about job site hazards and allowing hazards to exist.

OSHA handed down the toughest penalties to Rapetti Rigging.  The agency said Rapetti had failed to comply with the crane manufacturer's specifications when erecting and raising the steel tower. The failure of the company to inspect the nylon slings and notice pre-existing cuts and snags was one of three factors that led to the collapse, OSHA said. The citations against Rapetti include three willful violations, the most severe issued by the agency, and five serious violations.  Rapetti's fines totaled $220,000.

According to OSHA, Reliance Construction Group was issued 11 citations totaling $19,500 in proposed penalties.  Joy Contractor was issued one repeat and 14 serious citations worth $74,000.   They were cited for a range of issues unrelated to the March 15 crane collapse that were uncovered in an inspection after the accident.

"Ultimately, the crane collapse was a failure to follow basic, but essential, construction safety processes," Richard Mendelson, area director of the OSHA, said in a statement.

The March collapse, and another that killed 2 people in May, has painted an unflattering picture of the way construction sites in New York city are regulated.  Following the March incident, a city inspector - who allegedly had lied about inspecting the doomed crane in the weeks before the collapse - was arrested for falsifying records. The March crane collapse also led to the resignation of New York City Buildings Commissioner Patricia Lancaster.  A criminal investigation into the May accident is ongoing.

According to city records,  the crane rigging license of  William Rapetti  - owner of Rapetti Rigging and its only full-time employee -  expired in July.  The New York City Buildings Department has placed a hold on it,  in case he seeks to renew it.

]]> http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/14920 Mon, 11 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/14920
The new crane safety bill was passed after two crane collapses earlier this year in New York city killed a total of 9 people.  The most recent collapse occurred in May, when a 200 foot crane perched atop a high-rise under construction collapsed and fell about 30 stories to the ground below. In addition to the two fatalities, a third worker was seriously injured.  A large portion of an adjacent high-rise apartment building was destroyed as well.  The investigation into that crane collapse is said to be focusing on a rebuilt part that may have failed. The Manhattan District Attorneys’ office has also launched a criminal probe into the incident.

Seven other people were killed because of a crane collapse that occurred in March, just a couple of miles south of May's tragedy.  Following that incident, a city inspector - who allegedly had lied about inspecting the doomed crane in the weeks before the collapse - was arrested for falsifying records. The March crane collapse also led to the resignation of New York City Buildings Commissioner Patricia Lancaster.

In June, the city’s chief crane inspector, James Delayo, was arrested for taking bribes to allow cranes to pass inspection. He was also accused of taking money from a crane company that sought to ensure that its employees would pass the required licensing exam. As the chief inspector for the Cranes and Derricks Unit at New York city’s Department of Buildings, Delayo had responsibility for overseeing the inspection of all cranes, including tower cranes, the type that collapsed in the two recent fatal accidents. However, prosecutors have said that Delayo's alleged crimes had no role in either fatal collapse.

"Recent construction crane-related accidents in the New York City area have raised understandable concerns about the safety of building sites," Governor  David Paterson said after signing the law. "With stricter criminal and civil penalties, this new law will send a message that we have zero tolerance for any actions that negatively interfere with the inspection and licensing of construction cranes."

The law requires the permanent license revocation of any inspector found to have falsified or knowingly made misstatements on an inspection report or who accepted a bribe. Such inspectors would also be subjected to civil penalties ranging from $1,000 to $5,000 per violation.

]]> http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/14825 Fri, 25 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/14825 crane collapses this week alone, prompting lawmakers in Congress to push for tougher rules for construction crane work. On Tuesday, nine Senate Democrats sent a letter to Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, urging the adoption of tougher standards.

On Thursday, an elderly man was killed in Oklahoma City when the boom of a crane fell on his car.   Just the day before, an iron worker in Normal, Ill., who was assembling girders at a construction site, died when the boom of a crane fell on him.   And last Friday, four Houston construction workers were killed when a 30-story crane, one of the world's largest, collapsed at the LyondellBasell Industries refinery in Houston. Seven other workers were injured in that accident.

This year New York City saw two fatal crane collapses within a two month period.  The most recent, which killed two construction workers, occurred in May, when a 200 foot crane perched atop a high-rise under construction collapsed and fell about 30 stories to the ground below. In addition to the two fatalities, a third worker was seriously injured.  A large portion of an adjacent high-rise apartment building was destroyed as well.  The investigation into that crane collapse is said to be focusing on a rebuilt part that may have failed. The Manhattan District Attorneys’ office has also launched a criminal probe into the incident.

Seven other people were killed because of a crane collapse that occurred in March, just a couple of miles south of last month’s tragedy.  Following that incident, a city inspector - who allegedly had lied about inspecting the doomed crane in the weeks before the collapse - was arrested for falsifying records. The March crane collapse also led to the resignation of New York City Buildings Commissioner Patricia Lancaster.

According to The Wall Street Journal, this year, at least 18 construction workers have died in crane-related accidents. That figure doesn't include bystanders' deaths.

The Senators' letter  said it was "unfathomable" that Chao's department, which is responsible for maintaining worker safety, including inspecting cranes, hadn't implemented recommendations made in 2004 by industry and labor to issue a new standard to improve crane safety.  

]]> http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/14649 Wed, 25 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/14649 crane collapses in Manhattan that killed a total of 9 people.  While the New York officials said the city was enacting its own tough  new crane rules, they told members of the House of Representatives Education and Labor Committee that federal rules were vital, because one tower crane can be used on construction jobs in multiple states.

This year New York saw two fatal crane collapses within a two month period.  The most recent, which killed two construction workers, occurred last month, when a 200 foot crane perched atop a high-rise under construction collapsed and fell about 30 stories to the ground below. In addition to the two fatalities, a third worker was seriously injured.  A large portion of an adjacent high-rise apartment building was destroyed as well.  The investigation into that crane collapse is said to be focusing on a rebuilt part that may have failed. The Manhattan District Attorneys’ office has also launched a criminal probe into the incident.

Seven other people were killed because of a crane collapse that occurred in March, just a couple of miles south of last month's tragedy.  Following that incident, a city inspector - who allegedly had lied about inspecting the doomed crane in the weeks before the collapse - was arrested for falsifying records. The March crane collapse also led to the resignation of New York City Buildings Commissioner Patricia Lancaster.

Current Buildings Commissioner Robert LiMandri told the committee yesterday that his department is increasing requirements for testing cranes and their components; for reviewing maintenance records and for tracking cranes and their parts as they move from job to job.  But LiMandri insisted that crane safety won't improve unless the federal government acts.  

Many states have not implemented training requirements for people who work with cranes.  Some states don't even have certification requirements for crane operations, and they don't even bother to keep track of the number of cranes that operate in their state at a given time.  

On the Federal level, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) hasn't updated its crane standards since 1971. A federal advisory committee reached consensus on wide-ranging new rules in 2004, but the enactment of those rules have been bogged down.   Edwin G. Foulke Jr., OSHA’s assistant secretary of labor, told the committee that he believed that new crane regulations wouldn't be enacted until 2009.

Though New York crane collapses have garnered the most attention recently, such accidents are not limited to that city.  In 2006, the last year for which federal figures are available, 72 workers died in crane accidents around the country.

]]> http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/14519 Thu, 05 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/14519 construction accident deaths in New York City this year has prompted the office of Mayor Michael Bloomberg to announce a new set of safety recommendations.  The proposal comes less than a week after a crane collapse on Manhattan's upper East Side - the second fatal crane accident in the city since March - killed two construction workers.

Sixteen people have died as a result of New York City construction accidents this  year.  The most recent deaths occurred last Friday, when a 200 foot crane perched atop a high-rise under construction collapsed and fell about 30 stories to the ground below. In addition to the two fatalities, a third worker was seriously injured.  A large portion of an adjacent high-rise apartment building was destroyed as well.  The investigation into last week's crane collapse is said to be focusing on a rebuilt part that may have failed. The Manhattan District Attorneys' office has also launched a criminal probe into the incident.

Another seven construction deaths in the city this year were the result of a crane collapse that occurred in March, just a couple of miles south of last week's tragedy.  Following that tragedy, a city inspector - who allegedly had lied about inspecting the doomed crane in the weeks before the collapse - was arrested for falsifying records. The March crane collapse also led to the resignation of New York City Buildings Commissioner Patricia Lancaster.  

The cranes in both the March collapse and the one that occurred last week were owned by the same company, New York Crane and Equipment.  

Now, according to Newsday, the Mayor's office is proposing a system that would track contractors' safety records and shut down the most serious offenders.  The proposal also calls for mandatory crane training for workers who "rig" cranes, an issue that critics said may have contributed to the March  crane collapse. The Newsday report says the package proposed by the administration does not contain any measures that directly address the possible failure of the rebuilt part implicated in last Friday's crane collapse. However, city officials say they plan to announce more crane safety proposals soon.
 
The proposal also calls for allowing the Buildings Department to assign a safety monitor to projects with poor safety records, raising penalties to $25,000 for violations like a tripping hazard, and fining building owners who don't report structural problems.

]]> http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/14500 Tue, 03 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/14500 crane collapse on Manhattan's upper East Side - were reportedly raided yesterday as part of a criminal probe into the tragedy.  According to the New York Times, boxes of documents and computers were removed from the premises.  Meanwhile, it was learned that a key part on the doomed crane - the turntable - had been rebuilt following its removal from another site last spring after a dangerous crack was discovered on it.  Investigators now believe that an inadequate weld on the rebuilt turntable is the cause of last Friday’s accident, in which the top of the crane broke away from the tower.

The New York City crane collapse - the second in the city in less than three months - occurred Friday morning at the height of rush hour.  The accident involved a 200-foot, 24-year-old Kodiak crane, a model now out of production. The crane had been inspected three times in the past month, but no violations had been issued. But inspectors did temporarily order one crane at the construction site to stop all work on April 23 for not having the proper permit and for operating the crane in an unsafe matter. Building Department records also said officials halted work after a crane on the site failed a “load test” on April 22. The crane passed a second test, however, the next day.

Two construction workers were killed in Friday’s New York City crane collapse. The victims included the crane operator, Donald Leo, 30, and worker Ramadan Kurtaj, a 27-year-old immigrant from Kosovo who came to New York two years ago.  Leo was to be married in three weeks. A third construction worker was seriously injured, and at least one pedestrian was treated for minor injuries.

The Manhattan District Attorney's office has launched a criminal investigation into the New York City crane collapse.  The investigation is centering on the turntable - a rotating apparatus that connects the operator’s cab and the boom to the crane tower. Prosecutors want to know if the Buildings Department ordered New York Crane to dispose of the part after it was deemed unsafe last spring.  If repairs were authorized, the investigation will focus on how the repairs were done, and whether the Buildings Department eventually signed off on them.

The turntable involved in Friday’s accident was damaged during construction on West 46th Street last May.  Bill J. Smith, president of claims and risk management for NationsBuilders Insurance Services, the crane company's insurer, told the New York Times that New York Crane had sent the damaged turntable to a welding company in New Jersey for repair after the crack was discovered. The cracked part and other aging components were replaced, and the rebuilt turntable was welded back together, he said.  Smith, who examined the turntable after the accident, said that a visual inspection of the weld suggested that the weld had not adequately penetrated the metal to “marry” the two pieces of steel that it was supposed to hold together.

Smith was unable to tell The New York Times  whether the  Buildings Department knew that New York Crane was returning the repaired turntable to service or whether the city had authorized the company to do so.

New York Crane also owned the crane involved in a similar collapse this past March.  That accident, which occurred just a couple of miles away from the site of Friday's crane collapse, killed seven people.  Following that tragedy, a city inspector - who allegedly had lied about inspecting the doomed crane in the weeks before the collapse - was arrested for falsifying records. The March crane collapse also led to the resignation of New York City Buildings Commissioner Patricia Lancaster.

]]> http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/14493 Mon, 02 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/14493 New York City crane collapse has prompted the Manhattan District Attorney's Office to start a criminal investigation.  According to The New York Times, the probe will try to determine if a part of the doomed crane had been seriously damaged last year and then inappropriately put back into service.  

The New York City crane collapse - the second in the city in less than three months - occurred Friday morning at the height of rush hour on Manhattan's upper East Side.  The crane involved in the accident was perched atop the Azure, a building currently under construction at 91st Street and 1st Avenue.  The crane destroyed the penthouse and several other apartments at the Electra, an adjacent building.  Witnesses told CNN the cab and the arm of the crane crashed more than 20 stories to the ground, smashing the penthouse on a building across the street and gouging chunks out of balconies all the way to the ground.

Two construction workers were killed in Friday's New York City crane collapse.  The victims included the crane operator, Donald Leo, 30, and worker Ramadan Kurtaj, a 27-year-old immigrant from Kosovo who came to New York two years ago. He earned a living laying water and sewer lines, sending his savings home to his parents. Leo was to be married in three weeks.  A third construction worker was seriously injured, and at least one pedestrian was treated for minor injuries.

The New York City Building Department is trying to determine the cause of the accident, which involved a 200 foot, 24-year-old Kodiak crane, a model now out of production. The crane had been inspected three times in the past month, but no violations had been issued.  But inspectors did temporarily order one crane at the construction site to stop all work on April 23 for not having the proper permit and for operating the crane in an unsafe matter.  Building Department records also said officials halted work after a crane on the site failed a “load test” on April 22. The crane passed a second test, however, the next day.

Following Friday's tragedy, the Buildings Department halted the erection of new cranes, dismantling of cranes in use or extending the height of any cranes, a process known as "jumping" throughout the city.   The Buildings Department also suspended several crane operations in the city for the weekend and the agency said it would inspect the four other Kodiak cranes operating in the city.

The criminal probe into the New York City crane collapse is focusing on a possibly defective turntable - a rotating apparatus that connects the operator’s cab and the boom to the crane tower.  According to source interviewed by The New York Times, investigators believe but were not certain that the turntable involved in Friday’s accident was damaged during construction on West 46th Street last year.  In both jobs, the cranes were owned by the New York Crane and Equipment Corporation.  

If the same turntable was used in both incidents, the criminal investigation will examine whether or not the Buildings Department ordered New York Crane to dispose of the part.  If the Buildings Department gave the go-ahead to New York Crane to have the turntable repaired, the investigation will examine whether or not the repairs were done correctly.

If criminal investigation finds wrongdoing, it would be the second time this year that a fatal New York City crane collapse was linked to criminal liability.  In March, a crane collapsed just two miles south of Friday's accident, killing seven people.  Following that tragedy, city inspector - who allegedly had lied about inspecting the doomed crane in the weeks before the collapse - was arrested for falsifying records. The March crane collapse also led to the resignation of New York City Buildings Commissioner Patricia Lancaster.

]]> http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/14491 Fri, 30 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/14491 New York City crane collapse now stands at two, and at least one other person has been seriously injured.  All three were construction workers at the site. According to MSNBC, the first fatality involved a worker who was in the cab of the crane when it fell, and the second construction worker died at the hospital.  In addition, one pedestrian was treated for minor injuries.

The crane involved in the accident was perched atop the Azure, a building currently under construction at 91st Street and 1st Avenue on Manhattan's upper east side.  The crane destroyed the penthouse and several other apartments at the Electra, an adjacent building. The tragedy occurred  shortly after 8:00 a.m., at the height of rush hour.  

Witnesses told CNN the cab and the arm of the crane crashed more than 20 stories to the ground, smashing the penthouse on a building across the street and gouging chunks out of balconies all the way to the ground.

According to MSNBC.com, neighbors near the construction site had made various complaints about cranes to the city recently, but inspectors found that most of them were "unwarranted".  But inspectors did temporarily order one crane at the site to stop all work on April 23 for not having the proper permit and for operating the crane in an unsafe matter.  Building Department records also said officials halted work after a crane on the site failed a "load test" on April 22. The crane passed a second test, however, the next day, and no violation was issued.

New York City has been beset by construction accidents recently, and this was the second crane collapse in two months.  That tragedy occurred two miles south of today's accident on the east side of midtown Manhattan.  The March crane collapse also destroyed a townhouse, and seriously damaged five other buildings.  Six workers from the construction site, as well as a Florida woman visiting the city who was staying with a friend in the destroyed townhouse, were killed in the March incident.

Following the March New York City crane collapse, a city inspector - who allegedly had lied about inspecting the doomed crane in the weeks before the collapse - was arrested for falsifying records.  The March crane collapse followed complaints from residents about the site and led to the resignation of New York City Buildings Commissioner Patricia Lancaster.

Despite the obvious danger posed by the construction cranes that dot the New York City skyline, the city Buildings Department revised its crane inspection rules just two days ago.  The department nixed a requirement that a city inspector be present every time a construction crane is erected or made taller.  Rather, inspectors will make spot checks of the crane raisings, known as jumps, and of safety meetings at which procedures for each jump must be laid out. The department kept a warning about nylon slings, saying they should be used during jumps only if the crane manufacturer recommends them, and then only with special padding to protect them from sharp edges on the crane pieces.

The New York Times reported that investigators looking into the March collapse have focused on nylon slings that broke during such a jump. The slings had been used to hold up a massive steel collar that was placed high up on the crane to help stabilize it.

]]> http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/14072 Fri, 21 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/14072 New York City crane collapse that killed 7 people has resulted in the arrest of a city inspector.  The inspector  allegedly lied about checking on the crane in the weeks before it collapsed and decimated a Manhattan block.

The New York City crane collapse occurred on the east side of midtown Manhattan last Saturday afternoon.  The crane was being used in the construction of a  43-story luxury apartment building.  The crane broke into pieces as it crashed down onto 51st street, not far from the United Nations Building.  The crane collapse destroyed a townhouse, and seriously damaged five other buildings.  The New York City crane collapse killed six workers from the construction site, as well as a Florida woman visiting the city who was staying with a friend in the destroyed townhouse.

Damage from the New York  City crane collapse, which  officials said ranked among New York City’s worst construction accidents, is expected to reach into the millions of dollars.  At least a half-dozen buildings were evacuated,  and rescue workers were using dogs, listening devices and thermal imaging to search the rubble for victims.

Yesterday, Edward Marquette, 46, was arraigned and released without bail on charges of falsifying business records and offering a false instrument for filing. Marquette was an inspector in the building department's division of cranes and derricks.  The arrest came after investigators questioned Marquette on Wednesday.  A complaint about the crane was logged March 4 to a city hot line, officials said, and Marquette said he inspected it. It was later determined he had not. Marquette has also been suspended from his job.

In the days prior to the New York City crane collapse, neighbors in the area had lodged several complaints with the city about its safety.  Bruce Silberblatt, a retired contractor and vice president of the Turtle Bay Neighborhood Association, told the Associated Press that he had filed a complaint just weeks before Saturday’s collapse.  “I warned the Buildings Department on March 4 that it was not sufficiently braced against the building,” Silberblatt said.  Some other residents told the Associated Press they had complained to the city several times about the construction site. Crews worked illegal hours and the building was going up too fast, they said. City officials said they had issued 13 violations to the site in the past 27 months, a normal amount for a project of that size.

In addition to Marquette's suspension and arrest, buildings Commissioner Patricia Lancaster said that the department would be conducting a full audit of his inspection reports over the past six months, and also of the cranes and derricks unit.  City officials also said they have started inspecting every construction crane in use around New York City.

]]> http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/14049 Tue, 18 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/14049 New York City crane collapse, which left seven people dead and destroyed much of two city blocks, may have been caused by the failure of nylon slings.  According to The New York Times, photographs supplied by a person who visited the scene of the New York City crane collapse shortly after the accident show two manual winches attached to two yellow nylon slings. The slings are ripped off and ragged at the ends. For investigators who arrived at the site after the accident, the ragged, broken slings immediately raised alarms, according to people involved in the recovery who spoke with The  New York Times.

The New York City crane collapse occurred on the east side of midtown Manhattan Saturday afternoon.  The crane was being used in the construction of a  43-story luxury apartment building.  The crane broke into pieces as it crashed down onto 51st street, not far from the United Nations Building.  Several buildings were damaged in the New York crane collapse, and residents in about 300 apartments in 17 buildings were evacuated.  There is no word yet on when the evacuees might be able to return.  

Four workers from the construction site were originally reported dead as a result of the New York City crane collapse, but another 3 bodies were pulled from the ruble yesterday.  Two of those recovered yesterday were also believed to be construction workers. The seventh victim was a woman visiting New York from Florida, police said.

The New York Times has reported that workers  were trying to install a massive square steel collar around the crane’s tower, at the 18th floor of the construction site. They were using a series of manual winches that appeared to have been hung from nylon slings attached to a higher portion of the tower. The collar was to have been attached to the building by steel struts to give the tower added stability.

The New York Times said it appears the collar, winches and slings broke free and fell, smashing into a second collar at the ninth floor and shearing it from the building before coming to rest on top of a third collar near the base. That destabilized the tower, and the weight of the crane’s cab pulled the tower down onto the buildings below.

According to one expert interviewed by The New York Times, photos of the ripped slings indicated that they might have failed.  Bradley D. Closson, president of Craft Forensic Services in Bonita, Calif., which investigates accidents involving cranes, said it appeared that one of the slings had torn and the other had pulled apart, possibly after weight shifted onto it as the first gave way.

Another expert, Paul S. Zorich, the chairman of the committee on crane and sling safety standards of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, told The New York Times that the ripped slings in the photo made it appear as though they could have been "grossly overloaded".

The New York City crane collapse ranks as one of the deadliest construction accidents in the city's recent history.  It has also raised concerns over the safety of other such cranes, which are frequent fixtures at construction sites around New York City.  To that end, New York City buildings commissioner, Patricia Lancaster, said she would begin a sweep of new inspections on the approximately 250 cranes in operation at construction sites around the city.  

]]> http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/14040 Mon, 17 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/14040
The New York City crane collapse occurred on the east side of midtown Manhattan Saturday afternoon.  The crane was being used in the construction of a  43-story luxury apartment building.  The crane broke into pieces as it crashed down onto 51st street, not far from the United Nations Building.  In addition to the destroyed townhouse, the New York City crane collapse seriously damaged five other buildings.

Four workers were killed in the New York City crane collapse. They were identified as Wayne Bleidner, 51, of Pelham; Brad Cohen, 54, of Farmingdale; Anthony Mazza, 39; and Aaron Stephens, 45, of New York City, police said Sunday. Twenty-four others were injured, including 11 first responders. Eight people remained hospitalized, officials said.

Damage from the New York  City crane collapse, which  officials said ranked among New York City's worst construction accidents, is expected to reach into the millions of dollars.  At least a half-dozen buildings were evacuated,  and rescue workers were using dogs, listening devices and thermal imaging to search the rubble for victims.

According to Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the missing included two workers at the construction site and a Florida woman who was visiting the city to take in the St. Patrick's Day Parade.  The Florida woman was staying with a friend who lived in the destroyed townhouse, and was in a second floor apartment when the crane collapsed.

No one knows as yet what caused the New York City crane collapse, but people living in the neighborhood said that the safety of the crane had caused concerns for months.  Bruce Silberblatt, a retired contractor and vice president of the Turtle Bay Neighborhood Association, told the Associated Press that he had filed a complaint just weeks before Saturday's collapse.  “I warned the Buildings Department on March 4 that it was not sufficiently braced against the building," Silberblatt said.

Some other residents told the Associated Press they had complained to the city several times about the construction site. Crews worked illegal hours and the building was going up too fast, they said. City officials said they had issued 13 violations to the site in the past 27 months, a normal amount for a project of that size.

The city inspected the crane on Friday, but maintains it found nothing wrong.  The crane apparently collapsed on Saturday while it was undergoing a process called "jumping" in which it was being lengthened with the addition of a new section.  

An owner of Reliance Construction Corp, which operated the construction site, told the Associated Press that a piece of steel fell and sheared off one of the ties holding it to the building, causing the structure to detach and topple. He said the company had subcontracted the work to different companies and was not in charge of the crane.  The crane was owned by New York Crane & Equipment Corp., which so far has had no comment.

]]> http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/12415 Wed, 27 Dec 2006 00:00:00 -0800 http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/12415
Richard Joseph, 33, of Brooklyn, was killed in the construction site accident at 280 West 113th St. The two who were injured were taken to a hospital, and no other information was immediately available on them.

"I could hear the men screaming for help," said a woman who would only identify herself as L. Smith but who witnessed the accident. "I saw them covered in debris. He had beams covering his body, across his head."

Relatives of Joseph, who had a toddler son, said he was a jovial person but he had predicted at a Christmas Eve party that he would die on the job.

"He said, you know, 'I'm not going back to this job because I just feel like I'm gonna die if I go back there,"' recalled cousin Octavio Felix, who didn't say why Joseph felt he would die.

The fire department said it responded to the call about the five-story Manhattan tenement building at about 12:30 p.m., after some of the building's floors apparently gave way and crushed a construction worker on the first floor.

No scaffolding was visible outside the building, and the outer walls did not appear to be affected. A view from the roof of a nearby building showed that the top floors of the structure had fallen in.

Neighbors near the building said they were concerned for their homes.

"I'm wondering if my building will be OK," Rose Schello said.

The Department of Buildings halted work at the partially collapsed building and was investigating.]]> http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/12417 Wed, 27 Dec 2006 00:00:00 -0800 http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/12417
Richard Joseph, 33, of Brooklyn was killed and two other workers were injured when the roof of 280 W. 113th St. collapsed, sending four floors cascading down in a thunderous roar of bricks and beams.

"At our family party on Christmas Eve, Richard said, 'I'm going to die on this job,' " his cousin Octavia Felix said.

Joseph had taken a two-month leave from his job as a police officer in Barbados to explore a possible move to New York, but things hadn't worked out and he'd been planning to go home to be with his 2-year-old son, his family said.

"He was supposed to leave for Barbados on Friday," said another cousin, Paula Flororenville.

"He told me the job is too risky. He didn't want to go back, but since he only had two days left, he did."

Joseph was buried under a pile of beams.

"I could hear the men screaming for help. I could see one of them covered in debris. I thought, 'Oh, my God! He must be dead,' " said a security guard who works nearby.

The terrifying accident occurred at 12:31 p.m. as the men were working on the first floor.

The five-story building had been gutted and was being converted into apartments.

One of the workers managed to struggle free and the second was freed by firefighters. They were taken to St. Luke's Hospital, where a spokesman said they suffered only minor injuries.

Joseph's family said one of the injured men was the victim's uncle, Stephen Fanfane, 39, who suffered a broken leg.

"We're all in pain," said Jeffrey Ramos, 26, who had worked with Joseph. "He was a hardworking man, a good man."

The city's Buildings Department ordered all work at the site stopped and planned to charge the contractor, Transcorp Construction of Elmhurst, Queens, with four violations, including failure to carry out a proper demolition under the building code, an official said.

The company's president, Amran Khan Niazi, did not return calls.

The building was undergoing a renovation under a city program that sells empty buildings to developers.

A spokeswoman for the city's Department of Housing Preservation and Development said that in January 2003, the empty building was sold to a holding company, the Neighborhood Partnership Housing Development Fund.

The partnership was fined $800 in August for constructing scaffolding without a permit. Another violation for failing to maintain the scaffolding is pending.

Ralph McCoy, the president of Global Properties, which was to assume ownership once the renovation was complete, would not comment.
]]> http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/12419 Wed, 27 Dec 2006 00:00:00 -0800 http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/12419
A three-person crew was gutting the five-story red-brick structure on West 113th Street when the interior floors crumbled to the ground at about 12:30 p.m., fire department officials said. A construction worker identified as Richard Joseph, 33, of Brooklyn, was pronounced dead at the scene, police said. Two others were taken to St. Luke's Hospital in stable condition.

The residential building was not occupied during the renovation, police said.

Constructed in 1910, the building was in the process of being rehabilitated for low-income housing, city officials said. Previously city-owned, it was sold in June 2003 by the Department of Housing Preservation and Development as part of its Neighborhood Entrepreneurs Program, an agency spokeswoman, Amanda Pitman, said.

The building is owned by the Neighborhood Partnership Housing Development Fund Corporation, an affiliate of the Enterprise Foundation, which builds affordable housing throughout the country. Under the terms of the sale, a neighborhood-based company, Global Partners, was designated to oversee renovation of the building, Ms. Pitman said.

Messages left yesterday at Global Partners and the Enterprise Foundation were not immediately returned. HPD documents indicate that Global Partners has received more than $400,000 in tax credits since 2004 for building low-income housing in New York City. Information was not available yesterday as to how many other buildings are associated with Global Partners. A building across the street from the one that collapsed is owned by an affiliate company, according to a sign on the building's exterior.

After the collapse, officials from the city's Department of Buildings said inspectors would determine the cause. A department spokeswoman said in October that the agency issued a work permit to Transcorp Construction Corporation in Elmhurst, Queens.

Officials indicated the building received three citations this year stemming from complaints about scaffolding safety and contractors working without a permit. Most recently, the buildings department issued a citation after it received a complaint about after-hours work at the site.

A security officer at a building on West 112th Street adjacent to the one that collapsed said she witnessed the accident on a surveillance camera. "When the debris fell down, I could see on my surveillance camera dust and debris," Linda Smith said. "I could even hear the guys calling for help."

Of the two survivors, one dug himself out of the building and the other was rescued by firefighters, fire department officials said. "The debris fell on top of the person who was trapped, and it took us a while to get that victim out," an assistant fire chief at the scene, Joseph Pfeifer, said.

A man who said he used to live in the building expressed shock. "It's just tr]]> http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/12267 Fri, 17 Nov 2006 00:00:00 -0800 http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/12267
Bellevue Fire Department Lt. Bruce Kroon said the man's body was found in a fourth-floor apartment of the Pinnacle Bell Centre.

The crane was being operated at the time it fell, and the operator was hurt but reportedly not seriously, police spokesman Greg Grannis said.

Paul Leeper and Linda Rosario, both 42, live in a third-floor condo directly below the point of impact in the Pinnacle Bell Centre building. They believe the dead man lived in the unit above them.

Rosario was working at her computer in the living room of her condo. She was about three to four feet from the windows. "I heard this rumbling like thunder, getting louder," she said. "It was quite terrifying."

Suddenly, glass was everywhere.

"I covered my head. I stood frozen. I told my husband to throw me my shoes. There was glass all around. I called 911. They said, 'police, fire or medical?' I said, 'Everything.' "

Leeper said he heard a loud rumbling, then a huge boom. "I thought it was a plane. My wife thought it was an earthquake. The fourth floor it was toast. My deck is missing."

The impact caved in their ceiling, lowering it by a foot.

"I guess it wasn't my time," Rosario said.

Firefighters used a ladder to retrieve the operator from about 20 to 30 feet above the ground, but he was able to pull himself out of the cage, Kroon said. He was taken to Overlake Hospital. The hospital reported no other victims had been brought in as of midnight.

The accident occurred about 7:30 p.m. at 108th Avenue Northeast near Northeast Fourth and Second streets, a bit north of the Seastar Restaurant. The crane was blocking 108th Avenue Northeast, a major downtown intersection, and the damaged buildings included Plaza 305 and the Civica Office Commons.

The crane had been working on Tower 333, which is an office building that has been vacant for a few years, officials said.

Tower 333 is a 20-story, 430,000-square-foot office building that was formerly known as the Bellevue Technology Tower.

It was approaching the final stages of completion, according to the developer's Web site. The project was scheduled to be completed in October 2007.

Brokers and real estate sources told the P-I in August that Google Inc. had its eye on the tower for possible offices.

Two men who work nights on a Pilchuck Contractors road crew saw the crane fall and ran to the buildings, arriving before police.

"It was unbelievable," said Turk Allen. "I've never seen anything like it, and I hope I never see anything like it again.

"I think I'm going to have at least a couple bad dreams about it."

Adam Moore said he heard a loud pop, looked over and saw the crane "make a slow roll into the side of the building." Then he saw sparks fly.

"It sounded like a tire blowing out times 1,000," Moore said.

The two men ran down a catwalk into the building, looking for victims. They spotted a four-man cleaning crew, but none had been harmed in the crash.

The crane operator told fire officials he was getting ready to shut down for the night when he heard a crack and the crane went down, Kroon said.

Part of the top floor of the Pinnacle Bell Centre was crushed and the building immediately next to the crane, Plaza 305, was damaged extensively, Kroon said. About 100 displaced residents in the apartments were taken to the Bellevue Hilton and other locations and sheltered overnight.

Police officers and firefighters are still checking other buildings that were hit by the crane. The cause of the accident was not immediately known.

The victim in the apartment was in a fourth-floor unit. His identity was being withheld Thursday night, pending notification of relatives.

From the street, a piece of the man's furniture, likely a couch, poked through the gash that was left by the crane. The crane was still bent up against the building.

The crane operator had been securing the crane for the night when he heard a snap and it collapsed with him still inside, Fire Chief Mario Trevino said. The operator rode the crane down when it collapsed.

The crane hit three buildings in all. It first hit an office building, then came down on the apartment building and then shaved the side of another building with mixed business/retail inside.

Andy Redinger, who lives in a building next door to the apartments, said he felt the "ground shake." Redinger, who said he used to work in a metal factory, said it sounded like someone had taken several carts full of metal and had thrown them off a building.

Jennifer O'Rourke, 36, a Microsoft employee who was working late when the accident occurred, said she arrived home to find her condo unit blocked off.

"I'm very worried about my birds," she said. "I have a pet parrot. She's in the dark."

Jim Riley, manager at the Jimmy Johns sandwich shop about a block away, said he and his employees went out to the parking lot and saw smoke billowing out of the nearby buildings.

"The first thing I thought was that it was another 9/11," he said.

Riley sent his driver to investigate the situation, and was told there was a "huge hole in the building."

The crane collapse occurred about an hour after rush hour.

"If this occurred an hour earlier, it could have been a lot worse," Bellevue Mayor Grant Degginger said.

One of the buildings hit was the Civica Office Commons, which sustained damage to the northeast corner on the fifth and sixth floors.

Kellanne Henry was working on the fourth floor with a co-worker. She recalled working in a high-rise office building in San Francisco when the 1989 earthquake hit there.

"At first, I thought it was an earthquake. But it was such a violent impact to the building that I knew it wasn't an earthquake. I thought it was a bomb," Henry said.

Late Thursday, fire and police officials were still on the scene looking for possible other victims, using police dogs to search through the debris. The state Department of Labor and Industries also had investigators at the site Thursday night.

J.C. Hong, 37, lives next door to the unit where the fatality occurred. He is a Lexus salesman called away to business Thursday afternoon in Tacoma.

"I wanted to go home," he said. "But it was a good thing. Otherwise I would have been at home probably watching TV."

His wife, Soo Young, 36, said of the cranes: "Before this happened, I thought about a crane falling. I thought it could do a lot of damage if it fell down."]]> http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/12266 Fri, 17 Nov 2006 00:00:00 -0800 http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/12266
The crane was working on a vacant office building when it toppled Thursday night, crushing the top floor of an apartment building, fire department Lt. Bruce Kroon said.

The victim was not immediately identified.

The crane's operator was also hurt but was able to pull himself out of the cage, which was about 20 to 30 feet above the ground, Kroon said. He was taken to a hospital, but the extent of his injuries wasn't known.

Police were going door to door to check on residents of the apartment. Officers hadn't been able to get into one of the buildings because of damage, Kroon said.

The cause of the accident was not immediately known.]]> http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/7609 Tue, 17 Feb 2004 00:00:00 -0800 http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/7609
Rescue crews spent four hours recovering the dead as fellow construction workers held vigil in 20-degree weather and onlookers stood stunned at a construction project touted for its engineering ingenuity and safety record.

"It just looked like you pulling an erector set apart," witness Lee Timmons of East Toledo said.

"They were very experienced ironworkers. None of them were rookies. They were very good, top men," said Joe Blaze, business manager of Ironworkers Local 55 in Toledo. "This is just a tragic day for the ironworkers and their families."

The Ohio Department of Transportation expected to keep I-280 closed today as Toledo police and occupational safety officials continue assessing what went wrong to send one of two 315-foot erection truss cranes 60 feet into the median of I-280.

"Obviously this is very complex," said Rich Martinko, ODOTs assistant director of highway management.

"We really dont have any answers or any indication what led to this," he said.

Part of the crane spilled over a concrete construction barrier about 10 feet into the left lane of northbound I-280, but no vehicles were hit and no motorists were injured.

The twin $3 million cranes, built in Italy especially for the I-280 project, are the highest profile pieces of equipment used to build the elevated roadway leading to the future cable-stayed span over the Maumee River.

Normally, the back end of the crane rests on a pier at the most recently completed section of roadway.

A middle set of legs rests on the closest pier and the cranes front edge stretches to the next pier beyond.

The crane lifts the sections of roadway into place. Once a span of roadway is complete, the cranes back end and middle legs each move to the next respective piers, and the cycle repeats.

The workers were readying to repeat such a cycle when the crane fell near the Front Street exit ramp off northbound I-280.

About 500 feet away, Mr. Timmons said he was sitting in his living room on Graham Street, next to Ravine Park, when he heard a boom. He ran outside and gazed at the crane.

"It started going boom, boom, boom, boom, and the whole thing started falling down," Mr. Timmons recalled.

To Maurice Habbouche, who was driving south on I-280, the sound was more like a tornado.

"It was loud, an incredible noise," the Oregon resident said.

"I thought somebody had hit my truck, so I started looking around and saw yellow stuff coming down."

Behind Mr. Habbouche was Pemberville resident Bill Burton, who witnessed sections of the yellow crane tumble down into the median, crushing the trailer of a construction semi ferrying sections of precast concrete roadway to the project.

"It was like slow motion. I just stopped the car and watched," Mr. Burton said.

"I cant believe I saw that. Im looking at it, and I still dont believe it."

Construction workers, motorists, and rescue crews rushed to find the three dead workers and begin evacuating the injured.

A collapsed construction crane rests against a pier of the northbound segment of the I-280 bridge over the Maumee River.

Some construction workers stood in stunned disbelief. Others dialed their cellular phones to call loved ones and tell them they were OK.

Ironworkers requested that authorities allow them to help retrieve and carry the bodies to the ambulances, Mr. Blaze said.

"Nobody was leaving until everyone was accounted for," Mr. Blaze said.

The injured were taken by ambulance to St. Vincent. The men were being treated for numerous problems, including closed head injury, spinal injuries, and injuries to the abdomen, chest, and extremities, said Dr. Randy King, associate director of emergency medicine.

Dr. King said it is difficult to tell whether the men were hurt from the fall or from heavy debris that could have fallen onto them.

Heather Guy said she accompanied a friend to the scene to see if the friends boyfriend had been among those hurt.

They drove to city Fire Station No. 13 at Front and Consaul streets to check the list of the injured. After waiting for news, they found out the worst: the friends boyfriend, Mr. Moreau, was among the dead.

"From what I knew of him, he was a wonderful person," Ms. Guy said.

Across town, a friend of Mr. Phillips, John Cook, described Mr. Phillips as "a great guy, a great family man."

"Hed do anything for you. This was horrible. He had a little boy and a little girl," said Mr. Cook, a neighbor for about eight years.

Mr. Blaze remembered Mr. Lipinski, at 6-foot-6 and 270 pounds, as an excellent worker and a "mountain of a man."

Friends with all three victims, Mr. Blaze said the tragedy literally hits home for the tight-knit union, where all the victims had family that were or are in the union.

Mr. Lipinskis father was an ironworker. So was Mr. Moreaus father. And Mr. Phillips father and brother were ironworkers, Mr. Blaze said.

Among the injured, Mr. Collins father and brother were ironworkers as well as Mr. Clarks father. Mr. Hennemans son is an ironworker who was at the site yesterday and watched his father being rescued.

"What happened today affects generations," Mr. Blaze said.

Several family members and friends of the dead and injured gathered at the fire station, where they were met by Red Cross workers and chaplains, including Father Francis Speier, and given food from Tony Packos Caf.

"They are in shock," said Father Speier, the fire departments chaplain. "Theyre dealing with it as best they can."

The family of Mr. Moreau are among those awaiting word on what exactly happened.

"They have a lot of questions that dont have answers, and probably never will," Ms. Guy said.

The accident appeared to be the worst in the Toledo area since May, 1976, when four workers riding in a construction basket plunged 300 feet into a smokestack at Detroit Edisons Monroe power plant.

The last fatality of a worker building a Toledo bridge came in 1956, when a steel worker fell 40 feet during the construction of the Craig Memorial Bridge, which currently carries I-280 over the Maumee River.

ODOTs Mr. Martinko vowed a complete investigation of the crane collapse.

"We dont want to rule anything out. Everything is in play: structural, mechanical, the process, the human issue," he said.

Mr. Blaze said the ironworkers were hand-picked for the job: "They knew what they were doing."

As for the cause, Mr. Blaze said he did not know and wouldnt speculate: "Were going to let the professionals sort this out."

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration will bring in agency engineers from Chicago and Cleveland today to help decipher what caused the collapse of the crane.

The mammoth structure was made by the Italian firm Paolo de Nicola and delivered in pieces early last year to the site, which is overseen by general contractor Fru-Con Construction Corp.

The companys heavy civil construction group was formed in the summer of 2001 and was awarded its first project in March, 2002, the Maumee River Crossing.

The cranes normally take a week to complete each 150-foot span. They had completed the construction of the 11th set of spans late last week and yesterday were being moved into position for the 12th span when the northbound-sides crane fell.

Mr. Martinko said there was no load on the crane when it fell.

The accident occurred less than 11 months after a hydraulic boom crane tipped over as it was lifting a 58,000-pound concrete form onto a pier.

The operator injured a finger in that accident, which occurred about 200 yards south from the scene of the tragedy.

In January, 2003, a fire began atop a bridge pier.

Still, prior to yesterdays accident, the I-280 bridge project the largest and most expensive in state history had experienced only five lost-time injuries during 1.3 million man-hours worked, according to ODOT spokesman Joe Rutherford.

"Thats about 400 percent better than what OSHA would consider acceptable for a project like this," Mr. Rutherford said.

"The safety record on this project, up to this point, had been exemplary," he said.

Fru-Con officials declined to comment, but their Web site touts their safety efforts.

"Safety is not just a statistic or policy at Fru-Con - its our culture," according to the companys Web site. "A zero-incident policy permeates the entire organization."

Until yesterday, the bridge had been showcased as a construction success story. Dignitaries regularly toured the project, which was under budget and expected to be completed by Labor Day, 2005, 14 months ahead of schedule.

Councilman Peter Gerken, a member of the Maumee River Crossing Task Force that has helped spearhead the project, said that now the projects legacy has changed.

"Everyone knows the dangers of these kinds of construction. Until now, the topic had been how fortunate we were to get this far with no serious injuries," he said.

Councilman Peter Ujvagi, whose district covers the site of the accident, said the scene left him in "absolute dismay and total sadness for workers and their families."

"These are hard-working guys who take some major risks," Mr. Ujvagi said.

ODOT plans to close I-280 near the bridge until it can ensure that the bridges piers and roadway are safe for workers and passing motorists. ODOT has had limited shutdowns of the highway during past phases of construction.

During those times, as now, northbound motorists are diverted off the highway at State Route 795. They can reenter the northbound lanes after the construction zone.

Southbound motorists are diverted at I-75, and can re-enter the southbound lanes after the construction zone.

ODOT officials were not sure how much longer it will take to complete the bridge. When that happens, Mayor Jack Ford said, the events of yesterday will not be forgotten.

"I think people will remember that not only was the building of the bridge a monumental task, but that three at least three men died in the making of the bridge."]]> http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/7002 Thu, 13 Nov 2003 00:00:00 -0800 http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/7002
El Jebel resident Everado Garcia Lopez, 25, was killed in what authorities have deemed an accident. He had been working on the roof of a single-family residence. Two other men were injured in the accident, but officials have not released their names.

The residence is being built at the Circle R Ranch, about 3.5 miles up Woody Creek Road.

According to sheriffs Investigator Ron Ryan, two workers were standing in a plywood box lifted up to the edge of the roof, 22 feet from the ground, by a telescoping forklift. Ryan said the 4-foot-by-8-foot box was open-aired and open on the side facing the house so the men could work on the roof.

The box also held their tools and materials for the roof, he said. Around 3 p.m. the box fell to the ground, with the workers inside.

Why the box fell is part of the continuing investigation, Ryan said.

All three men were employees of European Roofing Designs, a firm with an office in the Aspen Business Center. A roofer in the box with Garcia Lopez was seriously injured, and another employee standing on a balcony below the two roofers was struck when the box fell down.

Rodney Turner, president of the roofing company, was at the job site yesterday afternoon while waiting for an official from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to arrive. Turner said somberly that he wasnt at the site when the accident occurred.

Weve never had an accident before, he said. I always tell them to be safe, and I dont pressure them to be fast.

The Denver office of OSHA is investigating the accident. The offices area director, Herb Gibson, said the investigation could take weeks.

We interview the multiple parties involved, and we look at the equipment, the work site and the training for the workers all of the things that may play a role in an accident, Gibson said. Its a tragic situation, and our job is to determine the cause of that and prevent future accidents.

Pat Fenton, president of Fenton Construction, which is the general contractor on the project, said the incident was a tragedy but refused to comment further.

Gibson said after a workplace fatality, OSHA looks into whether any safety and health violations were present at the work site, including the inspection and accident history of the employer. He said that when a violation of OSHA standards is found, a citation is issued when they conclude the case.

But Gibson reiterated that investigations can take weeks.

We dont know what occurred and what happened right now, he said. Were collecting lots of information from the parties that were there the workers, the first responders on the scene and all other people involved as well as information about the grounds and physical things involved.]]> http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/7004 Thu, 13 Nov 2003 00:00:00 -0800 http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/7004
The spike comes as workplace fatalities across the country are dropping.

The number of occupational deaths in Maryland jumped to 102 in 2002, from 64 in 2001, according to the statistics released Monday. Meanwhile, the number of work fatalities nationwide fell to 5,524 in 2002, from 5,915 a year earlier.

"Maryland tends to average more in the low 80s, so last year, 2001 was especially low and this year seemed to be especially high, and we don't know exactly what contributes to that," said Sheila Watkins, regional commissioner for the Bureau of Labor Statistics' mid-Atlantic region. "Both years seem to be different from the norm."

There were 25 deaths in Maryland's construction industry last year, up from 19 in 2001. Stephen Bisson, a statistical administrator with Maryland's Occupational Safety and Health agency, said that figure increased because of the large amounts of construction in the state.

Highway accidents and homicides at work each claimed 22 last year. Homicides at work, which include shootings and stabbings, are typically a result of holdups at gas stations and retail stores, Watkins said.

Highway crashes include truck drivers and salespeople driving to a sales call, but they do not include accidents during the commute to or from work.

Nationwide, highway crashes for years have been a leading cause of death at work, and in 2002 they accounted for a quarter of the country's workplace fatalities. ]]> http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/7003 Wed, 12 Nov 2003 00:00:00 -0800 http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/7003
Wham Brothers Construction was fined $4,325 for failing to have a system in place to protect workers from cave-ins and for not inspecting the site daily or requiring employees to wear hard hats. The company also did not remove large clay clumps on the edge of the trench, have a ladder or stairs into the trench or hold regular hazard training, according to the state Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation decision.

Norman "Tripp" Wham was putting the last piece of pipe in a nine-foot-deep trench when a wall collapsed and suffocated him on Oct. 3, according to the report.

Wham's father or other company officials could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Wham, 30, was the project manager for building a stormwater culvert on Cleveland Street when the trench collapsed. He was the younger of two children of Jane and Norman Wayne Wham Jr. of Anderson. He was called Tripp to distinguish him from his father and grandfather, for whom he was named.

A former football player a T.L. Hanna High School and member of New Covenant Presbyterian Church, he met his wife Jennifer at work. They married five years ago, and had a daughter, Dawson, 3.

Federal law governs work in trenches, Jerald Martin, president of Martin Engineering Consultants, told The Greenville News.

The main guideline is making sure there is a trench box a steel brace-like device at the bottom or the dirt around it is stepped away from the bottom if the hole is more than 4 feet deep, he said.

Wham's death was the sixth in the state since last December after a period of 23 months without a trench fatality, state records show.

On average, 126 people nationwide died in cave-ins each year between 1997 and 2002, according to figures compiled by the Census of Fatal and Occupational Injuries.

According to a study by Purdue University Professor Dulcy Abraham, most trench accidents are the result of poor planning.

"Trenches with improper protection systems or no systems at all are in high risk of cave-in," the Abraham study found. Safety procedures are often discussed but not followed, the study found.

According to the investigation report, Wham and another workers were unhooking the last piece of pipe that was being lowered by a trackhoe when the wall collapsed. The other man was struck in the leg, but got out.

Wham's father and two other workers jumped in to save him, but he was buried too deep, according to authorities.

Rescue workers worked almost four hours to save him, but shortly before 7 p.m., Wham was pronounced dead.

The company could have been fined up to $7,000 for each violation, said Jim Knight, labor department spokesman. The employer's size and safety records are considered when setting the amount of a fine, he said. ]]> http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/6299 Fri, 18 Jul 2003 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/6299
Scott May, who celebrated his seventh wedding anniversary July 4, took this job within days of being laid off from Georgetown Steel on June 29.

He became the fifth person killed in a construction accident since December in Horry and Georgetown counties and the second person working construction to die this week.

Alfonso Morales, 41, of Loris, died Tuesday afternoon after falling about 40 feet from a roof in North Myrtle Beach. Morales was working with Performance Builders of Little River.

May was working with Landmark Construction, a company based in North Charleston, said Georgetown County Coroner Kenny Johnson. The crew was building a foundation for a structure at the power plant, on U.S. 17 South.

"They were about 12 or 15 feet down," Johnson said. "The dirt bank gave way and covered him."

May's co-workers used their hands and shovels to free him from the trench, Johnson said.

May's official cause of death was suffocation.

Lesia Kudelka, spokeswoman for the Occupation Safety & Health Administration, said the investigation into the accident will take about six weeks. She doesn't know if work has stopped at the construction site.

OSHA investigates all industrial accidents involving a fatality.

"OSHA will be looking for safety factors," Johnson said.

"They coordinate their investigation with my findings to determine if there is anything preventable."

May was a standout football player at Georgetown High School and was in the Navy. He helped his parents, Bill and Linda May, at their former business, Garden Accents, on U.S. 17.

May's family, friends, former coaches and teachers were shocked Thursday by his death.

"He was a good person and a good son," Bill May said. "He never did anything to make me ashamed."

Bill May said his son was thinking about returning to college while he was laid off from the steel plant. He could have returned on the GI Bill or another federal program offered to employees and former employees of Georgetown Steel.

James Sanderson, head of Local Steelworkers Union 7898, said May worked in the rolling-mill and melt-casting departments.

He had been at the mill since June 2002.

"All of the employees at Georgetown Steel are in a state of sadness," Sanderson said. "He was very committed to his job and he enjoyed working at Georgetown Steel."

Keith Brown, principal at Georgetown Middle School, was May's assistant football coach in ninth grade. He worked with May when he became a weight lifter in high school. May won several awards in the sport while at Georgetown High.

They stayed in touch after May graduated in 1990.

"After he graduated, he would help me judge weight-lifting competitions," Brown said. "He was one of those kids you have fond memories of in your coaching career."

Scott May, 30, was killed at about 1 p.m. Wednesday at Santee Cooper's Winyah Generating Station when a trench collapsed on him.

Alfonso Morales, 41, of Loris, died Tuesday after falling about 40 feet from a roof in North Myrtle Beach.

Oscar Barojas, 23, of Galivants Ferry, died May 29 while working in a ditch installing pipe when he was hit in the chest by the bucket of a trackhoe.

Chad Edward Steffey, 18, of Longs, died May 8 after being being pulled into a cement mixer.

Juan Vazquez, 31, of Tabor City, N.C., died Dec. 4 after part of a ditch collapsed on him at the Coastal Grand Myrtle Beach mall site.]]> http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/209 Wed, 13 Mar 2002 00:00:00 -0800 http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/209
Buildings Commissioner Mary Richardson-Lowry said Denver-based AMS Architectural Technologies did not follow specifications stating that the heavy rig should be secured to either the base or top of the office tower in bad weather.

"All indications are that (the scaffold) was not where it should have been when we have severe weather forecasted," she said Tuesday.

The scaffold fell Saturday and crushed two cars on Chestnut Street, killing Nanatta Cameron, 39, and Melissa Cook, 29, both of Chicago, and Jill Semplinski-Nelson, 27, of Olathe, Kan.

The National Weather Service recorded wind gusts of up to 58 mph at a downtown airport around the time of the collapse. Forecasts issued the day before the collapse called for gusts of 45 mph.

A spokesman for AMS disputed the city's conclusion that the contractor is responsible.

"We believe this is a design issue, not an operational issue," Ray Hanania said. "We did everything to the letter."

Hanania said the scaffold was not being used and was docked Saturday at the 42nd floor of the building.

Richardson-Lowry said the city's Law Department is researching what penalties the city could levy for failure to follow a scaffold maker's specifications.]]> http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/203 Tue, 12 Mar 2002 00:00:00 -0800 http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/203
Broken glass still littered the streets around the 100-story Hancock building, the city's third-tallest building, which anchors the north end of the city's busy Michigan Avenue shopping district.

The scaffolding platforms crashed to the ground Saturday as a storm whipped the area with wind that the National Weather Service (news - web sites) said gusted to 60 mph.

City Building Commissioner Mary Richardson-Lowry said the scaffold was owned by Beeche Systems Inc. of Skotia, N.Y. Prime Scaffold of Bensenville was hired to handle the rigging and move the scaffolding, according to the owner of the building, the Shorenstein Co.

Richardson-Lowry said it was unclear whether the scaffolding was being operated Saturday. The city prohibits people from working on a scaffold in winds over 35 mph, she said.

Prime Scaffold said it was investigating. No one answered the phone Sunday at Prime Scaffold.

Shorenstein issued a statement saying it was "shocked and saddened by the tragic accident."

Authorities reopened Michigan Avenue and two other streets near the building on Sunday night. Authorities pulled the scaffolding inside the building and began taking its lower panels apart, said Cmdr. Tim Stokes of the Chicago Fire Department.

Crews worked to board up dozens of windows shattered as the platforms blew against the glass. In all, 66 windows were damaged, according to Shorenstein.

City building officials said they wanted to know whether the two scaffolding systems, which had been left in place almost halfway up the building, was properly secured at the time of the accident.

A city ordinance requires scaffolding systems to be locked in position when not in use. Richardson-Lowry said she did not know how or if the scaffolding was secured.

"All we know right now is where it ended up," Richardson-Lowry said.

Those killed by the falling debris were identified as Nanatta Cameron, 39, of Chicago; Melissa Cook, 29, of Chicago; and Jill Semplinski-Nelson, 27, of Olathe, Kan., the Cook County Medical Examiner's office said Sunday.

Cook and Semplinski-Nelson were cousins on their way downtown to go shopping before celebrating Cook's 30th birthday Saturday. Their mothers were in the car with them when the scaffolding fell.

Semplinski-Nelson's cousin, Melissa Rohrer, said her cousin had waved a pedestrian through the crosswalk just before the scaffolding fell.

"The chances of this happening are a kazillion to one," she said. "If they had just gone through (the light) themselves, they would have been alive."

Eight people were injured, including Semplinski-Nelson's mother, Betty Lou Semplinski, 56, who was in fair condition at Cook County Hospital Sunday with a broken leg and hip. Cook's mother, Linda Demo, was treated and released from Cook County.

A woman in her 50s was in critical condition Sunday at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where four others had been treated and released, a hospital administrator said.

A 53-year-old man was treated for minor injuries and released from Grant Hospital on Saturday, officials said.]]> http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/111 Fri, 30 Mar 2001 00:00:00 -0800 http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/111
But the labor of 3,600 people who built the new home of the Milwaukee Brewers also is tinged with the memory of three who never saw the finished product.

Ironworkers Jerome Starr, 52, Jeffrey Wischer, 40, and William DeGrave, 39, were killed July 14, 1999, when a crane collapsed onto the partially built stadium while lifting a 450-ton roof piece. The accident delayed Miller Park's opening by a year.

Several workers watched the massive crane collapse but were helpless to stop it.

"It's been rough on everybody," said Brent Emons, union representative for Ironworkers Local 8. "I think everybody had the accident on their minds for a long time."

The Milwaukee Brewers are focusing on celebration rather than sadness for the ballpark's opening, said Laurel Prieb, vice president for corporate affairs.

But the accident left an indelible impression on the Brewers staff, Prieb said.

"From the day of the accident on, their memories will always be etched in our minds"' he said.

A fourth worker, plumber Arthur Margis, died of a heart attack at Miller Park three months before the crane collapse, Prieb said.

The team planned a moment of silence at an exhibition game before the April 6 opening to remember those who died, Prieb said.

A permanent memorial to all those who worked on Miller Park is planned for a plaza that's expected to be finished this summer, he said.

Jerome Starr's widow, Ramona Dulde-Starr, is not yet ready to discuss the tragedy publicly, said her attorney, David Lowe. Marjorie DeGrave and Patricia Wischer also have not spoken publicly about the accident.

Out of respect for those who died, workers did not have the traditional "topping off" ceremony, in which a fir tree is placed on the roof arches. The tree signifies that a job was completed without the loss of lives.

Last year, a jury awarded the ironworkers' widows $99.25 million in damages. Jurors found Mitsubishi, the ballpark construction project's roof subcontractor, 97 percent negligent in the accident.

Lampson International Ltd., which leased the crane and crew to Mitsubishi, also was found negligent but to a much lesser degree.

Four other Miller Park workers are suing Mitsubishi and Lampson for emotional and physical trauma they say they suffered when the crane known as Big Blue collapsed in heavy winds.

Attorney Frank Terschan said one of the workers, crane operator Joseph Edwards, 50, was working on Big Blue and talking to the men, who were in its man basket, by radio.

"When the last thing you hear is 'Get us out of here, get us out of here,' that kind of reverberates in your mind," Terschan said.

Still, Emons said workers are thrilled and proud to have been part of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, including the complicated, challenging job of building the stadium's key feature -- its retractable roof.

"It was exciting and very rewarding as far as the pride and workmanship goes," Emons said. "I can remember old-timers talking about County Stadium. Now these guys can talk about Miller Park." ]]> http://www.yourlawyer.com/topics/overview/construction_accidents Fri, 30 Mar 2001 00:00:00 -0800 http://www.yourlawyer.com/topics/overview/construction_accidents Construction Accidents
Although injury and fatality rates in many industry sectors have declined significantly in the twenty-three years since the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) came into being, this has not been the case in construction industry.  Construction is the United State's largest industry and one that has consistently registered high rates of workplace accidents. OSHA has had little success in reducing injuries and fatalities among construction workers, despite the fact that it channels a large portion of its resources into the enforcement of health and safety standards on construction sites.

Construction workers are exposed to a wider variety of hazards and face a greater risk of work-related injury or fatality than employees in any other U.S. industry; in 1992, according to the most recent annual Bureau of Labor Statistics data, the lost-workday case rate for the construction industry was 5.7 per 100 full-time workers, the highest of any major economic sector.

Victims of the following types of construction accidents have been successfully represented by Parker & Waichman, LLP:

• Roof Related Falls
• Crane Accidents
• Scaffolding Accidents
• Run-Over by Operating Equipment
• Lifting Equipment Failure
• Electric Shock
• Trench Collapses
• Fires and Explosions
• Hit by Highway Vehicle
• Compressed Gases Accidents
• Struck by heavy falling objects
• Welding Accidents

If you or a loved have been injured in a construction accident, please fill out the form at the right for a free case evaluation by a qualified personal injury attorney.]]>