New York Crane Collapse Kills At Least 1

May 30, 2008

A construction crane in New York City fell and smashed into a neighboring apartment building during the morning rush hour, killing at least one person - the crane's operator - and ripping apart much of the apartment building's facade, according to reports by The New York Times and Associated Press.

The crane was being used across the street from "The Electra," a 20-story apartment building at 91st Street and First Avenue, the news reports said.

The crane collapsed shortly after 8 a.m.

It is the second major crane collapse the city has seen this year, and comes less than two days after the city's buildings department - already under fire for a string of worker fatalities at construction sites across the city - said it would no longer require inspectors to be present when construction cranes are raised or lowered.

Those rules had been in place since March, when a construction crane collapsed while working on a 46-story, midtown Manhattan condominium building. The collapse killed seven people, destroyed a four-story townhouse and damaged several other buildings.

Last October, a crane dropped a container of debris from the 53rd
floor of a skyscraper near Times Square, injuring several people.

In interviews following the collapse, New York Mayor Michael
Bloomberg pledged to make public safety a top priority.