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Crane Operations Suspended in New York

By AMY WESTFELDT,
AP
Posted: 2008-05-31 07:24:35
Filed Under: Nation News
NEW YORK (May 31) -- A huge crane that broke apart, smashed into a New York City neighborhood and killed people for the second time in 2½ months has renewed residents' fears about living near construction sites and has prompted beleaguered city officials to call a safety summit.

"This is a meltdown," Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer said Friday after the 200-foot crane toppled on the Upper East Side, where a 32-story condo complex was going up. "We need bold action. ... As things stand now in Manhattan, I would never even stand under scaffolding."

The crane was turning to pick up a load of materials from the street when it tipped over, crashed into an apartment building and tumbled to the street, construction worker Scott Bair said.

Bair said the crane's turntable, which is used to help the crane change direction, appeared to fall off before the collapse. The city's acting Buildings Commissioner, Robert LiMandri, said investigators "will be focusing on a particular weld that failed" on the 24-year-old Kodiak crane.

The pieces of twisted steel in the street and wrecked buildings echoed the March 15 collapse of a crane into a town house 40 blocks away from Friday's accident. Seven people were killed then, prompting a new round of crane inspections and calls for construction safety.

LiMandri on Friday said the Department of Buildings would inspect the four Kodiak cranes operating in the city, saying the model was out of production. He suspended several crane operations across the city for the weekend and called an emergency meeting of experts Saturday to address crane safety.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg called the accident "unacceptable and intolerable" but said the city appeared to have followed regulations.

"Sadly, we have construction accidents all over the world," he added.

He also said the crane collapse didn't resemble the accident in March and defended the Department of Buildings, which had its commissioner resign in April under pressure after a spate of deadly accidents in a supercharged building boom. More than two dozen construction workers were killed in the past year.

"DOB didn't crash," the mayor said. "It was the crane that collapsed."

The crane toppled just after 8 a.m., destroying a penthouse apartment across the street and knocking off balconies on the apartment building as it plunged 20 stories into a heap of twisted steel.

"It sounded like an airplane hit the building," said John Jorgensen, who lived on the fifth floor across the street.

"The sound was like a thunder clap. Then, an earthquake," said Peter Barba, who lives on the seventh floor.

Killed were the crane operator, Donald Leo, 30, and another worker, Ramadan Kurtaj, 27. A third construction worker, Simeon Alexis, 32, was seriously injured, and one pedestrian was treated for minor injuries.

Leo, of Monmouth Beach, N.J., had planned to get married in three weeks and honeymoon in Greece. His fiancee, Janine Belcastro, said her "heart is broken."

Kurtaj had moved to the United States from Peja, Kosovo, about two years ago and lived with relatives in the Bronx.

Bair said one of the workers on his 40-man crew was taken to a hospital with his "chest slashed open." His eyes filled with tears, Bair said his own life was saved because he left to get an egg sandwich for breakfast a block away just before the collapse.

"I thought, 'I'm hungry, and I want to go get something to eat' — and that saved my life," he said. When he returned to the site, "everyone was shook up and crying. These are some hardened men, but they were crying."

In New York, the general contractor on the project, Leon D. DeMatteis Construction Corp., said subcontractor Sorbara Construction was in charge of operating the crane. A woman who answered the telephone at Sorbara said no one was available to comment.

In the March 15 accident, contractors building a 46-story condominium near the United Nations, about 2 miles from the site of Friday's accident, were trying to lengthen the crane when a steel support broke. A four-story town house was demolished, and several other buildings were damaged.

Buildings Commissioner Patricia Lancaster resigned under pressure a month later. The city also added extra inspections at building sites and required that its staff be on hand whenever the cranes were raised. But this week, the department said an inspector no longer had to be present.

Associated Press reporters David B. Caruso, Verena Dobnik and Adam Goldman and researcher Susan James contributed to this report.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.
2008-05-30 08:32:32
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1369 comments

garre9j 09:49:37 PM Jun 01 2008

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guess the inspector that they used as a scapegoat on the first one should have been left on the job.

clean2020window 05:46:25 PM Jun 01 2008

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ask about the grounded F-15 fighter jets,,, same problems,,, years of stress=fatigue

ladypionus06 05:44:45 PM Jun 01 2008

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they should shut them all down across the nation, untill all cranes are inspected

clean2020window 05:44:30 PM Jun 01 2008

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doubt that anyone was cutting corners,, or that anybody,, union or management was doing anything illegal..... It was just an older machine, and very very expensive to replace,,,looked good, still worked, but fatigued welds are rarely found out until they cause a catastrophe...

Generally these kind of things are prevented by meticulous rules for weld inspections or limits on the ages for load bearing critical equipment,,, they get old; they have to be scrapped out..

oddeith 10:46:26 PM May 31 2008

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Someome was cutting corners somewere.

oddeith 10:33:35 PM May 31 2008

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This is what happens when the safety of certain structures is determined by people with laptops.

papachuck63 10:16:45 PM May 31 2008

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rajo111 05:17:53 PM May 31 2008

Report This! i lover my labor union, today is saturday and i made $70 an hour to sweep a floor.and i took an hour for lunch since the boss man was no place to be seen and if he did catch me my union would just send me to a new job.this year i should make around $125g.so all you union haters out there do hate join or just keep making $7 an hour

Wow , You got a raise since yesterday! You told everybody on the board that you made $40 an hour doing a monkeys job! I didn't know you can make that flipping burgers!

pbt102756 10:14:31 PM May 31 2008

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Watch the documentries about Henry Ford and Carnegie.They treated their people like dirt.We need unions more now then ever.

papachuck63 10:12:35 PM May 31 2008

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person41 08:51:53 PM May 31 2008

Report This! People should read the article......IT SAYS IT Appears a WELD broke.....that would make it the manufactures fault...not the inspectors fault.....

Your Right! Union inspectors shouldn't have to look at welds!

bobseeks 09:25:28 PM May 31 2008

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It is strange that someone can call non-union workers scum when it is the union workers that are lazy, incompetant, dishonest and who commit acts of violence, including murder, to maintain their stranglehold on the industries they infest.

I would give a dime for every union maggot that ever lived.

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