A welder died and another construction worker was seriously injured after a building collapsed on a NYC construction site yesterday.
50 year old David Johnson, a father of two daughters going to college, was working on the demolition of a building located at 147-05 94th Ave in Jamaica, Queens, when the second floor where he was standing collapsed. Johnson and another unidentified worker were buried in the debris. When firefighters arrived, the condition were so bad that they had to use ladder trucks to free the victims. Johnson was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident. Hi co-worker was transported to the hospital with critical injury.
Johnson was an unionized welder with Local 79. He took the job at the non unionized demolition site run by the general contractor Cole Partners Inc because it was hard for him to find work. Before the accident, Leslie White, another member of Local 79 who worked as a safety supervisor on another site told him the day before “that thing is going to collapse”. Johnson told her not to worry.
The DOB had previously issued a stop worker order to an adjacent site but had authorized the demo. A new stop work order has now been issued for the demo site as well while the DOB is investigating the causes of the accident.