New York Construction Accident & Safety News

With all of the negative press swirling around the crane industry after several very profile crane accidents, including two in New York City, the industry is fighting back. Citing non stop changes to the law, those within the industry would like to see more uniform law to ensure that everyone is on the same page.

Jim Robertson, managing partner of General Crane USA and a member of the Florida Public Task Force on Workplace Safety told the group that the industry is vulnerable to the politics of knee jerk reactions driven by gory headlines.

The result in his home state of Florida was a push by 67 local counties to draft and try and pass regulations around cranes — and each one was different, resulting in a nightmare of compliance.

Robertson led the push to block Dade County’s legislation after discovering some of the standards set were unachievable and in some cases made crane-lift situations more dangerous.

The result of a long struggle is an emerging national certification program, says Robertson, which will make it easier for operators to comply and understand what is expected of them.

The same day a construction worker fell over 40 floors to his death, a worker in Queens also suffered the same fate after he fell three stories when a scaffolding platform collapsed. The worker appeared to be wearing a safety harness, however the harness was not attached to the building at the time he fell. Work on the building has been ordered to cease until it can be deemed safe.

It was unclear whether the worker, Miguel Rodriguez, 38, of Corona, Queens, simply fell from the platform or the platform had collapsed, officials said.

Mr. Rodriguez was pronounced dead at the scene, the police said.

Mr. Rodriguez and another man were doing “patch-up work and cement work” on a building at 226 West 111th Street shortly before 2 p.m., when the second worker stepped off the scaffold and into the building to use the restroom, said Malik Hussain, the owner of the paint company that employed the men.

The outbreak of construction accidents across New York City has not only been troubling for many, but very difficult to keep up with as well. Online real estate magazine The Real Deal has a fantastic roundup of the year’s construction accident news, including what the city of New York is doing to ensure that everything that can be done to prevent the accidents are.

Immediately following the disastrous week in late May when a crane collapsed on East 91st Street, killing two people, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Robert LiMandri, acting buildings commissioner, announced proposals aimed at preventing future fatalities.

On June 4, the DOB said it would add an additional 56 inspectors to the department, bringing the total number of buildings inspectors to 461 from 277 in January of 2002.

Bloomberg, who attributed many of the deaths to "tragically reckless behavior," proposed new legislation allowing the department greater oversight and enforcement.

"The bills will provide the department with the necessary powers to ensure that contractors are held accountable for their work," LiMandri said. "Buildings inspectors cannot be on every job site at every moment of the day, and so we must work together to create strong incentives for contractors to make safety their No. 1 priority."

If those laws are enacted, the DOB will take a more active role in determining management style and workforce qualifications on construction sites, aspects of building now largely left up to the individual contractor.

The master rigger  supervising the construction site where a worker fell over 40 stories to his death had their license suspended by the city of New York, cited for having unsafe conditions. The man in question, Gene Altobelli, will be charged with “negligence and incompetence” in regards to the construction accident.

Investigators determined that the worker’s safety harness was not secured and that a safety railing was missing from the platform where he was working, according to a statement from the Department of Buildings and the Department of Investigation.

Mr. Altobelli told investigators that he was not on the crane when the accident occurred about 9:30 a.m., but was taking a break in a street-level shed on the construction site, according to administrative charges that were filed against him on Friday in conjunction with the license suspension.

Earlier today a construction worker was killed in New York City after falling over 40 stories to the ground. WNYC.org has a partial transcript of mayor Michael Bloomberg playing down the event:

BLOOMBERG: It is the first tragic accident fatality in construction since May. Keep in mind this is a dangerous industry and while the numbers vary dramatically year to year, 15 or 20 deaths a year is what you’d normally have in this industry.

According to the article. the site on which the worker died has 32 open construction codes violations.