New York Construction Accident & Safety News

A strange construction accident happened this week after a hammer was knocked loose from a workman’s belt and fell 18 stories, crashing into the window of a cab below. The work being done on the Goldman Sachs tower in lower Manhattan, has seen it’s share of mishaps along the way.

Last May, a 30-inch square sheet of steel flew off the unlucky 18th floor and landed in the outfield grass during a Little League game.

Five months earlier, an architect working in a trailer adjoining the nascent skyscraper was paralyzed below the waist by 7 tons of falling steel after a nylon sling failed on the 43-story tower.

A stop work order was issued from the city on the building until further investigation over the accident can take place.

It’s been just over one year since a deadly crane collapse on the east side of midtown Manhattan, and some from the community gathered at the spot to pay their respects to those who passed away in the accident. Residents in the area wanted to make sure they brought the situation to light so that they don’t have to see another accident happen in the city again.
 

"The community has said enough is enough - safety has to come before speed," said Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, at the vigil at 305 E. 50th St. "We’re not where we have to get to (but) we were able to make great gains. We will never tolerate one day where we see a crane breezy in the wind and think that’s OK."

The crane toppled from a 19-story building on East 51st Street and leveled a four-story town house. The seven victims included construction workers Brad Cohen, 54, from Farmingdale and Santino Gallone, 37, of Bellmore.

In the last year, the City Council has passed 12 laws concerning crane safety, including tougher rules on using the nylon straps that secure cranes. A recent city investigation found that the improperly rigged 11,000-pound steel brace on the tower crane fell after workers had attached only four of eight protective nylon slings.

Will the down economy cause more construction accidents as people try to work faster and with less experience? The Long Island Business News reports on the issue that is cropping up at construction sites around the area. But is it true? Will people cut corners for money and put safety at risk?

One contractor who asked not to be identified said many builders won’t cut corners to save money. He said firms with long, reputable histories aren’t likely to suddenly skimp.

“There are always people who cut corners,” said the contractor. “Will people cheat when times get tough? Some people will never cheat.”

Whether or not the weak economy leads to corner cutting, some worry it could lead to more false claims. One Long Island contractor who asked not to be identified said he’s seen a surge in workers’ compensation claims among people about to be laid off.

“In that short period of time before they think they’re going to be downsized, they submit a report that they hurt themselves on the job,” the contractor said. “They file a report saying they pulled a muscle. Most employers slough it off. Then they [the workers] get laid off.”

The New York Times reports on corruption within the construction industry in New York City, especially as it pertains to cranes. Crane construction accidents were a big problem in the city last year, as multiple deaths resulted from poor crane regulations. The news of corruption comes as crane regulations are being implemented from the Buildings Commission.

After two fatal tower crane accidents last year, New York City instituted a series of reforms to increase safety and oversight in the construction industry, including requiring a 30-hour class for crane operators and other workers on the safest way to raise and lower a tower crane.

But some sessions of the city-mandated class are being taught by a union official who has admitted that he helped unqualified people, including organized crime figures, get into his union, according to sworn testimony and investigative reports. He and other union officials helped some of those men secure licenses to operate smaller cranes at construction sites across the city, the testimony and the reports say.

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.

A vigil was held last week in the Southampton Village are of Long Island for a construction worker who had been killed when a concrete wall collapsed on him. An inspection of the area after the accident found that the wall that fell on the worker was not properly supported.

"Unless every worker can work safely, then no worker can work safely," Suffolk Legislature Deputy Presiding Officer Vivian Viloria-Fisher (D-Setauket) told the gathering, speaking first in English and then in Spanish. "We have to be concerned that everyone who goes out to do a day’s work, who also is a human being, is protected."

Sunday’s vigil was sponsored by the Immigrant Worker Occupational Health and Safety Committee of the Workplace Project and the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health, two groups active in lobbying for worker safety.

The New York City Buildings Department has cited yet another contractor for a construction accident that occurred down at ground zero. Newsday.com has more details:

A construction worker has broken his leg in an accident at a toxic ground zero tower where two firefighters were killed over a year ago.

The accident happened last week in the basement level of the former Deutsche Bank tower, where workers were removing debris. Officials say an excavator struck the LVI Environmental Services worker and he broke his right leg.

New York City’s Buildings Department cited the contractor for not providing enough shoring or netting for fall protection. The accident is the most serious at the site since LVI took over the job cleaning debris and dismantling the building, which was badly damaged on Sept. 11.

The district attorney of New York City has brought homicide charges up against William Rapetti, owner of a rigging company that was responsible for a construction accident and seven deaths earlier this year. The 19 story tower crane fell while workers were trying to lengthen it.

Mr. Rapetti and the firm were charged with manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide, a person familiar with the indictment who wasn’t authorized to announce the charges said on condition of anonymity.

Mr. Rapetti’s company in Massapequa Park was one of three contractors fined over $300,000 by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration for safety violations stemming from the collapse.

The agency said Mr. Rapetti had failed to comply with the crane manufacturer’s specifications when erecting and raising the steel tower, and didn’t provide enough safety protection to keep workers from falling.

Construction workers have some of the most dangerous jobs in the world. Now thanks to a new robotics invention, they may not have to be exposed to some of the more dangerous conditions that lead to many construction accidents.

Newswise reports that the autonomous robots are designed to climb scaffolding and buildings by wrapping around a poll or beam and then rolling upward through an oscillating joint motion.
 
“Using built-in sensors and cameras, the robots would then inspect the structures or handle other dangerous tasks now done by humans,” the news service reports, citing Hong, RoMeLa’s director and the faculty adviser on the project.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ most recent report, of 5,488 total occupational deaths in the nation in 2007, the construction industry saw 1,178. About 38 percent of those were from falls, with 21 percent from highway accidents, 9 percent being struck by an object and 2 percent homicides.

News of yet another construction accident in New York City, this time in the Times Square area. Newsday.com has the story:

A construction worker was seriously injured in a pre-dawn excavation accident at a building site in midtown Manhattan, a New York City fire department spokesman said.

A call came in at 4:15 a.m. reporting the "structural collapse" on West 42nd Street near Eighth Avenue, the spokesman said.

One worker was trapped beneath the fallen construction materials, including concrete and a sidewalk shed, he said.

In all, four people were injured. Three of the injuries were minor, while the worker who had been trapped was taken to Bellevue Hospital with serious injuries to his legs.