New York Construction Accident & Safety News

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.

The New York Times reported on Nick Cianciotta’s close call with a glass panel falling from the 27th floor of a New York high-rise building. The continuous high-rise construction in Manhattan is started to be described as “close calls and luck.”

Around 10:30 a.m., Mr. Cianciotta, 58, realizing he had to feed his van’s parking meter, started walking toward it, and was about 100 feet away when he heard a loud crash. A large piece of a 4-by-8-foot panel of glass had fallen from a window on the 27th floor, hit an elevated sidewalk bridge below and smashed into his van. Shards of the 300-pound quarter-inch-thick panel sprayed as far as 100 feet away.

Apparently, falling window panels and other debris are common in the Manhattan area. So common in fact, that many people wonder how there hasn’t been a devastating accident yet.

Cranes are everywhere, especially in the East Side and Midtown Manhattan areas, but is it safe? There seems to be an escalating increase in construction accidents, with the crane accident that killed seven people being the latest. Liz Krueger thinks she knows the problem.

Our city’s approach to construction approvals and safety has been fundamentally flawed since changes were enacted by the Giuliani administration. Because of a lack of enforcement by the Department of Buildings, along with an extremely hot real estate market, many developers and their contractors ignore safety requirements, disregard building codes and violate zoning laws.

Ultimately, she thinks that there are several solutions, including the need to raise the city’s standards. Another key area is to actually enforce the standards that are in place – if we really want to avoid future incidents. Until then, we’re going to continue to see more needless construction accidents and even more construction accident lawsuits.