Gair, Gair, Conason, Rubinowitz, Bloom, Hershenhorn, Steigman & Mackauf is a New York Plaintiff's personal injury law firm specializing in automobile accidents, construction accidents, medical malpractice, products liability, police misconduct and all types of New York personal injury litigation.

Articles Posted in Crane Accidents

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deblasioAs the investigation continues into the causes of Friday’s fatal crane accident in Lower Manhattan, De Blasio announced new safety measures that took place yesterday.  The measures are temporary while a task force will draft long term safety measures over the next 90 days. One of the measures requires crawler cranes to stop operating and to go into safety mode when the wind forecast are for steady winds speeds of 20 miles per hour or higher or gusts of at least 30 mph. Before the rule was respectively 30 mph for steady winds and 40 mph for gusts of wind. Additionally cranes will have to be brought to safety the day before winds are forecasted  to be above the security level.  Pedestrian security will be enforced with the help of the Department of Buildings, Department of Transportation, NYPD, and FDNY anytime there will be a securing of a crane. Before that only construction workers were responsible to secure the site. Nearby residents will not only be informed about when a crane is installed but also when it is moved.

Read the transcript of the Press Conference

 

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crane collapse picA man died and four other people were injured in a crane collapse in New York around 8:30 this morning. The accident took place on Worth Street near Church Street. The accident occurred when a  massive construction  crane whose boom extended 565 feet high collapsed on a row of park cars.  The accident was caught on video by Glenn Zito, a construction worker  who was on the upper floors in a building across the street. Glenn and two of his colleagues had just been ordered to stop to work on the upper floors because the wind was too strong. He was on his way down when he capture the below video.

According to FDNY, 38 year old David Wichs had just exited from his car when the crane crashed on him and killed him. Mr. Wichs was an outstanding young man who immigrated from Czechoslovakia as a teenager, graduated from Harvard and worked in the financial industry. He lived with his wife in Manhattan on the upper west side. He was said by friends to be an extremely decent man.   Still in the car was 73 year old Thomas O’Brien who suffered head laceration but survived.  Another victim, 45 year old Dawn Kojima suffered leg injury and another person suffered minor injury after being hit by debris.

This morning the wind was blowing at more than 20 mph and it was snowing. The crew had suspended work and a decision was made to lower the crane to a more secure level. The accident happened as construction workers were lowering the crane’s boom in order to move it into a safe and secure position .

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Two construction workers as well as several pedestrians and car passengers suffered personal injury in a crane accident in New York yesterday morning. The crane was hauling an air conditioning unit of the size of a shipping container to the top floor of a 30-story building at 261 Madison Avenue, N.Y.C. when a rigging strap broke. The unit first crashed into the side of the building before landing on Madison Avenue between 38th and 39th streets. 10 people were injured by the falling debris. The crane operating company, Skylift, had a similar accident in 2010 during which no one was injured and received two serious OSHA violations.

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New York Crane AccidentA knuckle boom crane fell on a construction worker and killed him yesterday afternoon on a construction site located at 219 E. 44th Street near Second Avenue, New York City. The crane was fitted on a truck parked in front of the building and was used to unload material that was being delivered to the construction site. 40 year old Trevor Loftus , was standing on top of the flatbed truck holding his phone when the articulated arm fell on him and killed him. Loftus served as the crane safety coordinator for Kenry Contracting of Yonkers which is his own company. According to the Buildings Department, construction material was being lifted off the truck when a mechanical failure caused the arm to collapse and killed the construction worker.
Read more in the NY Daily News 
Picture: Buck Ennis

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After two fatal crane accidents killed several people in Manhattan in 2008, 65 safety fixes were identified by consultants but only 8 (12%) of them were implemented, 17 (26%) were partially implemented, 18 (28%) were in progress and 22 (34%) had not been implemented according to a recent audit by New York City Controller Scott Stringer.

In 2008 the Building Department paid CTL Engineers & Construction Technology Consultants $3.9 million to prepare proposals on how to improve safety at New York construction sites and avoid catastrophic crane accidents such as the collapse of a 300-foot crane that killed 7 people on East 51st Street in Manhattan or the collapse of another crane that killed two construction workers 2 months later. The consultants provided a list of 65 recommendations and were paid another $1.9 million to assist the DOB with the implementation of these recommendations. They were supposed to have 49 of the 65 changes implemented in the next two years but they fell far short of that according to Stringer’s investigation.

The audit identified serious weakness in the New York Cit Department Building Oversight that costed tax payers million of dollars.

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AzureNYCcraneaccident.jpgThe long legal battle that ensued after two construction workers died in a crane collapse on 91st Street and First Avenue in Manhattan in 2008 just took another unexpected turn last week.

After the owner of New York Crane and Equipment Corporation, Jame Lomma, was cleared of all charges in a criminal prosecution in 2012 a judge just declared a mistrial in the civil lawsuit against the construction magnate because he was hurt in a bad car accident and was still in the hospital.

The families of the victims, Donald C. Leo, the crane operator and Ramadan Kurtan, a sewer worker, who were suing James Lomma for wrongful death, will have to wait at least until September to pursue their fight for justice.

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Construction Accident Injuries are often catastrophic and the pain and suffering endured by the victims will last until the end of their life. In her recent blog for the Huffington Post “Astoria Characters; The Forgotten Hero”, Nancy Ruhling meets with Nick Pavlou, the construction worker who became known as the Hard-Hat Hero in October 1996 after he risked his life to save a woman’s and her son and granddaughter from a crane accident. His partner Paul Foti who was the crane operator died in the accident. Nick was crushed by the 6-ton boom and doctors thought he would never survive and if he would he could never be able to walk again. After 60 surgeries, Nick is alive and on good days he can walk for four blocks.But Nick’s life will never be the same again and the pain and suffering is present everyday..

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Vordonia Contracting and Supplies Corp./Alma Realty Corp. of Long Island City, MSI of Brooklyn, and North Eastern Precast of Fultonville allowed employees to work dangerously close to high-voltage power lines despite multiple cease and desist notices from the Long Island Power Authority.

Contractors were working on a residential and retail project at the corner of Sunrise Highway and Rockaway Avenue in Valley Stream, Long Island, New York. According to OSHA inspectors, in some areas of the construction site, power lines were just 4 inches above the head of the workers and they have been fortunate not to have been electrocuted.

The 3 contractors were issued willful citations for allowing employees and crane operations in close proximity to the power lines and serious citations for failing to mark the power lines with warning signs. Additional violations were issued for failing to train workers on electrocution hazards, not checking to see whether the lines were energized and unsafe crane operating procedures.

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one57%20crane-thumb.jpgDuring Hurricane Sandy, a tower crane at One57 construction site snapped backward during the 80-mile-per-hour winds and the 150-foot boom stayed tied to the mast, dangling dangerously nearly 1,000 feet high in the air over midtown Manhattan. The team of inspectors and engineers that responded to this crane accident and helped secure the collapsed boom recently received the Advancing Public Safety Award at the 2013 Commissioner’s Awards for Excellence, the New York City Department of Buildings annual ceremony held at Cooper Union in Manhattan.

After the collapse, Assistant New York City Department of Buildings Commissioner Michael Alacha, P.E., and Acting Assistant Commissioner Timothy Lynch, P.E., climbed to the top of 74-story unenclosed building to inspect the boom. In the following days multiple inspections of the crane, the hoist and the surrounding buildings were conducted and the two men as well as Executive Director of Cranes and Derricks Division Faisal Muhammed, P.E., Chief Inspector Frank Damiani and other engineers worked with the contractor and developer to devise a plan to secure the equipment. The entire operation lasted 5 days including 36 hours to slowly turn the crane mast sideways so the boom could then be secured.

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digger%20derrick.jpgOSHA recently issued a final rule to expand the exemption for digger derricks in its construction standard for cranes and derricks used in the electric-utility industry to telecommunications work. Digger derricks drill holes for utility poles. They are used by telecommunication companies to place poles inside holes and attach transformers and other items to the poles. The rule is effective June 28, 2013.

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