New York Construction Accident & Safety News

With all of the major construction and crane accidents happening in New York City in the recent months, the TGL Law Blog has some excellent news about the sites where one of those accidents occurred. It looks like all work has been halted no the site by the city of New York:

The site of a major construction accident this past March in Manhattan has been officially foreclosed on after the city revoked the site’s building permits. The project at 303 East 51st Street had a major crane collapse which killed seven people and forced the evacuation of many neighbors in the area. After review by city officials, it was discovered that the developer never had the proper building permits in the first place, and was rejected for a renewal on them.

Yet another crane accident occurred last week, leading the questions to fly regarding why there is such an influx of crane accidents this year as compared to the past. Several people who have been closely following the outbreak weighed in on the issue:

“I contend that (the accidents are) due to the real excess of construction activity in the U.S. in the last three or four years,” said Bernard Ross of the engineering and scientific consulting firm Exponent in Menlo Park, Calif.

Ross, whose specialty is heavy equipment and crane failure, said, “There’s just a very large increase in the number of cranes that are on job sites.” And, with the spike in crane use, there’s a resulting lack of workers qualified to operate the machines, Ross said. That compounds the potential for crane problems. There is no evidence that the crane operator in Monday’s local accident was not qualified.

National research on accidents, based on data collected by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, shows that from 2000 to 2006 there’s been an average of 78 crane-related deaths a year in the United States.

However, those numbers downplay the extent of crane problems, according to Tom Barth, a Goose Creek crane inspector and operator who also investigates collapses.

OSHA only tracks failures that result in fatalities or multiple injuries. Close calls like the incident at the Hilton Head marina aren’t counted. Barth said there’s a need for stiffer regulation. In South Carolina and 34 other states, crane operators are not required to be certified. He said that too often workers are learning to operate cranes on the job.

Great news from Newsday.com regarding new fines for those who violate the construction laws regarding crane operation. Many construction accidents have occurred recently in New York with cranes, and the new legislation is a big step forward in thwarting any future accidents from happening.

Criminal and civil penalties will increase for compromising David Paterson.

The law effective Nov. 1 makes altering licensing exams a felony. It also imposes fines of up to $5,000 for inspectors who falsify reports and permanently revokes their licenses.

The measure follows a spike in construction accidents in New York City, where crane accidents have killed at least nine people since March.

Yet another crane accident happened this week, killing a man in Smithville, Texas and severely injuring another. The crane was being used to work on a bridge over the Colorado River when it suddenly overturned causing the injuries.

The mobile crane was gripping a steel girder that was about to be removed from the bridge, Lt. Lonny Richardson of the Smithville Police Department said. A second girder came loose, falling on the other girder and causing the crane to overturn, he said.

The workers in the manlift were removing the fasteners that bound the beams together and were knocked out of the lift when the beams and crane fell, Richardson said He said the worker who was killed fell about 60 feet onto a stack of construction materials.

Since a construction accident in March left seven people dead in New York City, there have been more than twelve people killed in crane related accidents across the country.

Yet another crane accident happened this week, this time in Oklahoma City killing a bystander. The crane, which was being used to fix a steeple to the top of a new church. An 80 year old man was watching the assembly from his car when the crane collapsed, crushing the car he was in.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the state Labor Department and the owner of the crane, Barnhart Crane and Rigging Co., were to investigate.

Jeff Latture, Barnhart senior vice president, said it had been years since the company had an accident.

"We do about 10,000 jobs a year without incident," he said. "We are very upset about this and certainly are concerned about families involved."

Latture said the cause of the accident will likely be a structural failure of the 90-ton crane, some kind of a problem with the ground it was sitting on, or operator error.

"It was at the beginning of a very simple lift, which is somewhat troubling to us and not far into the lift when the crane went over," he said.

Clay, the fire official, said he saw no obvious equipment failure or problems with the ground the crane was on. He said about 150 feet of the telescoping boom was deployed at the time of the accident.

Oklahoma is one of 35 states that does not require crane operators to hold a license.

In the wake of a deadly crane accident in Houston last week which killed four men, the Houston Chronicle profiles crane operators and how they achieve their operating status.  It is very demanding work including long hours and lengthy separations from families, but can also be very lucrative as well with some workers making up to $100,000 a year. With the job also comes the responsibility of being responsible for moving tons and tons worth of building materials which can come at a high cost. Already this year 13 people have been killed in construction crane related accidents, and estimates say that 22 people a year die in that fashion.

Rocky Strength, one of four workers killed in Friday’s accident, worked as a crane builder, a job that frequently took him away from home. His mother, Lisa Schneider, said she occasionally started cooking elaborate weekend meals at her Santa Fe home only to get telephone calls from her son announcing that he had abruptly departed for an out-of-state job. "Hey," she said, "give me a heads-up."

"Once he got into the job — it was a thrill-seeking job — he enjoyed it," she said. "A lot of people can’t do it. He was very proud of it."

Ballard said he occasionally worked out-of-state jobs three months at a time, an assignment length he considers typical of the industry. On those jobs, he typically would live with other workers in motels, or, sometimes, rent an apartment.

"The money is better," he said of those jobs. "They make a lot more money on the East and West coasts."

Such far-traveling workers are called "boomers," — a wry wordplay on stretching out a crane’s boom.

Booming union operators typically can work in any city they can find a job. Permission to do so generally is granted by the union local in question, Ballard said. "We’ve sent people to Kuwait," he said. "We even sent them to the Soviet Union. They had to live in a men’s camp, a work camp, because there wasn’t anything else around."

"We’re professionals. This is what we do for a living. We know these cranes inside out."

The largest crane in use by a construction site fell in Houston this past Friday, killing four workers and injuring another seven. It is the latest crane collapse to happen in a time where the country has been plagued with them in New York, Miami and Las Vegas.  In the last four months, nine workers have been killed by crane accidents in New York City alone, a larger number than the total fatalities in the previous decade. Why is this trend escalating?

An Associated Press analysis in June found that cities and states have wildly varying rules governing construction cranes, and some have no regulations at all, choosing instead to rely on federal guidelines dating back nearly 40 years that some experts say haven’t kept up with technological advances.

Is there any remedy or relief in sight?

OSHA standards require cranes to undergo annual inspections, but it is a self-policing mandate for crane owners. Federal law requires that inspection records be kept, but not submitted.

 

New York is stepping up accountability on construction sites across the cit in the wake of the recent crane accident. The New York Times blog reports:

The construction codes were signed into law last July and most recently updated in March of this year. The implementation of the new codes comes as the Buildings Department has faced intense scrutiny over recent construction accidents — including two fatal crane collapses — and accusations of corruption among its ranks of inspectors.

Under city law, today marked the start of a one-year transition period during which applications for new buildings may comply with either the 1968 code or the new codes, which include standards for buildings, fuel and gas, mechanical systems, and plumbing. As of July 1, 2009, the new codes will be required for all new construction.

Luckily the next year until July 1, 2009 is a buffer zone of sorts, in which construction companies are given by New York to get into compliance with the new rules and regulations.

Tuesday Robert LiMandri announced new regulations for contruction cranes in an effort to lower the number of citywide construction deaths in New York City. The New York Times reports:

Its not surprising that legal action is following in the wake of injuries resulting from the recent crane collapse in NYC. The Associated Press points out:

NEW YORK (AP) — The owner of a building that was badly damaged in a deadly crane collapse has filed a $100 million lawsuit against the crane owner, contractor and others working on a new 32-story apartment tower across the street.

The company, First & 91 LLC, says in court papers filed in Manhattan’s state Supreme Court that it lost tenants and rent revenue, faces additional costs including repairs, and will suffer because the Upper East Side building has been “stigmatized.”

The lawsuit names crane owner New York Crane & Equipment, crane lessee Sorbara Construction, general contractor Leon D. Dematteis Construction and the owner of the building under construction, 1765 First Associates LLC.

Hopefully justice will be done public safety is affirmed by the precedent.