Construction Accident In High Winds
High winds that blew through with a storm last week have been blamed for causing the death of a man on a construction site in New York City. A wall on a job site was blown over and killed construction worker Robert L. McGee on Staten Island. The Buildings Department is looking into the incident however because witnesses claim the wall may not have had the proper safety restraints in the first place.
The city’s Buildings Department said the accident occurred at 8:12 a.m., and the buildings commissioner, Robert D. LiMandri, who visited the site, said investigators would focus on whether the job was done according to safety requirements.
“They are looking into how the wall was built and whether it was built according to code,” said Tony Sclafani, a Buildings Department spokesman. He said three stop-work orders had been issued at the job site; construction permits were first issued there in August 2007. Investigators from the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration were also at the site on Thursday.