The massive construction crane collapsed during a swirling snowstormin the morning.
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Collapsed crane in lower Manhattan hits a auto on the street.
Crane safety came under scrutiny in the city after two tower cranes collapsed in Manhattan within two months of each other in 2008, killing a total of nine people. On Friday, workers were in the process of lowering the more than 500-foot boom and jib so they could be secured against wind gusts.
Officials said Saturday they hope soon to recover the mobile crane’s computer.
City officials ordered more than 400 cranes in use in NY to be put in secure positions until further notice, the AP said.
The mayor said that the area, which has been closed to the public for blocks surrounding the accident scene, likely will remain off-limits to all but officials until at least Monday. City building inspectors had been at the site Thursday because the boom was being extended so it could reach farther onto the roof, de Blasio said. After the collapse, the crane’s big cab lay upside-down in the snow with its tank-like tracks pointed at the sky. According to PIX11, a person sitting in a auto was crushed to death by the falling crane, while others were injured by falling debris. The man killed was identified as David Wichs, a Harvard Univ. graduate from the Czech Republic who worked for a computerized trading company, who had apparently been parked on Hudson Street.
Ramsey said Friday that there was, “very little doubt” that the man arrested Friday was also serving as the city’s prosecutor.
The crane, with a 565-foot boom that stretched roughly as long as a city block, plummeted around 8:24 a.m. EST near 40 Worth Street in the TriBeCa neighborhood, the New York City Fire Department said.
The crane was being used to replace generators and air conditioners on a building roof and was found to be in good working order when inspected by the Department of Buildings the day before. Officials said it could take days before the crane is removed from Worth Street and streets in the area will remain shut down until that happens. “Thank God we didn’t have more injuries and lose more people”, the mayor said.
Crane engineers, who will be advised by the Department of Buildings when such conditions arise, will have to certify their compliance with the DOB or risk violations.
There also will be new “increased enforcement of sidewalk and street closures” related to cranes, and crane operators will be required to notify nearby residents and businesses before moving a crane.
A shooting at a strip club early Saturday morning in Tampa, Florida, left one person dead, seven injured and police searching for answers.
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“The wind started blowing so they went back up with it. On the second attempt to lower it, that’s when it got out of control and then it collapsed”, said witness Dan Vaughn.
