A huge construction crane being lowered to safety in a snow squall plummeted onto a Lower Manhattan street Friday, killing a Wall Street worker in a parked auto and leaving three people hurt by debris that scattered as the rig’s lengthy boom fell, officials said.
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Two other people suffered serious injuries and were transported to a local hospital, a spokesman for the New York City Fire Department said.
The crane was being lowered Friday morning during a snowstorm for fear of the high winds when it came toppling down, the New York Post reported.
On Thursday, city building inspectors approved a permit to extend the crane to its maximum length, de Blasio said.
A collapsed crane lies on the street on Friday, Feb. 5, 2016, in NY.
Besides wind, DOB investigators and the U.S. Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) are looking at operator error or the possibility that there was some flaw in the mechanics of the crane itself.
“My family knows I work all over the five boroughs daily and they can’t really keep up with where I am most of the time”, added Natale.
Multiple ambulances and emergency workers raced to the scene and were initially concerned about a potential gas leak and that the crane might be electrified, sources said.
The crane was being use to fix generators and air conditioners on the roof of a building on Hudson Street that once belonged to Western Union.
Tom Barth, a crane and construction expert often hired to analyze accidents, said in a phone interview that the city’s laws were not the problem.
Flatbed trucks were brought in by Bay Crane to help remove the structure.
“Thank God we didn’t have more injuries and lose more people”, de Blasio said.
The mayor noted that FDNY officers and personnel of utility company Con Ed are sweeping nearby buildings in search of gas links after gas odors were reported in the area.
The Department of Buildings said it implemented numerous recommendations and there is more oversight of cranes than ever before.
On Dec. 15, a nylon sling hauling seven tons of metal studs broke, seriously injuring an architect at the site of the 43-story Battery Park City building that was being erected for Goldman Sachs.
In March 28, 2010, a 280-foot crane at 80 Maiden Lane smashed into an office building after hours because a hydraulic pump in the rig failed. The site was exempt from most city construction safety rules because it belonged to a state transit authority.
The two injured persons were transported to a hospital, the fire official said.
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Glenn Zito, who was working on the upper floors of a building across the street, captured the crane’s collapse in a dramatic video. For precautions in case the two buildings collapse, the streets are now blocked off until further notice.
