The crane was rated to withstand wind gusts up to 25 miles per hour, but when winds neared 20 miles per hour on Friday the crew opted to secure it. A bystander’s video taken through a window high above the ground showed the crane’s arm descending in wind-blown snow and then taking the crane to the ground.
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David Wichs, a 38-year-old married Harvard graduate who was walking on the street when the crane, fell was killed in the incident.
Officials said surveillance footage of the crash is being reviewed carefully to determine a cause but it could take weeks to determine why the crane that was being lowered during strong winds came crashing down onto the street.
He said: “Thank God we didn’t have more injuries and lose more people”.
De Blasio says gas has been shut off in buildings around the area of Friday morning’s collapse.
Officials said Saturday they hope soon to recover the mobile crane’s computer.
“When the crane hit the ground, I heard a loud bang, it sounded like a bomb”, he said.
“You could feel the vibration in the building”, said Harold, who recounted seeing onlookers trying to rescue someone trapped in a parked vehicle and seeing a person lying motionless on the street. City officials launched an investigation into why the accident happened.
The crane was owned by Bay Crane, based in the New York City borough of Queens, and operated by Queens-based GTI, or Galasso Trucking.
Mayor de Blasio said that crews had blocked off the street while the crane was being moved and that minimized the number of injuries involved. A collapsed crane fills the street on Friday, Feb. 5, 2016, in NY.
The person operating the crane at the time tested negative for drugs and alcohol. “So that crew – those construction workers, who, in the normal course of their work, as they were lowering the crane, were in fact keeping people away from the site and keeping traffic from proceeding down West Broadway”, de Blasio said. They include: NY Law School (four buildings) 71 Thomas Street, which is a state Supreme Court building 40 Worth Street, which is a large office building.
Guttman says Wichs worked at the New York-based computerized financial trading firm Tower Research Capital.
The crane was being used to replace generators and air conditioning equipment in the building on 60 Hudson Street since January 30 in the area known as Tribeca.
The employee at Bay Crane said he was a manager but would not give his name when reached by The Associated Press.
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The massive construction crane collapsed during a swirling snowstormin the morning.
