New York City Crane Accidents – NYC Construction Worker Killer

This month in our news section, we reported on interesting New York construction site accident statistics for 2009. NYC construction site deaths are down, and many believe that the reason is the highly covered fatal crane accidents that took place in Manhattan last year – after the deadly crane accidents, many New York construction companies took safety more seriously.

The first New York crane accident took place in March of 2008 when a support beam on a crane broke, killing seven people and injuring ten others. In this crane accident, the heavy machinery fell 46 stories and damaged several downtown Manhattan buildings, causing millions of dollars in damages.

The second New York crane accident took place in May 2008, just blocks from the first accident. In this case, a crane collapsed, killing two NYC construction workers and seriously injuring one other. This crane also hit two major buildings and was deemed “unacceptable” by the New York City Mayor.

Although NY construction companies want workers to believe that crane accidents are “freak accidents,” there are a number of causes for crane collapses. According to the OSHA, most crane accidents take place when the cane boom collapses or malfunctions. Other crane accidents take place when a crane is constructed in the wrong way or when the crane is misused. In still other cases, crane accidents can take place if the crane is old or not maintained. Employers may also be responsible for a crane collapse if they have not properly trained their construction workers to operate the crane. Finally, many crane accidents take place because of improper “blocking,” the way that construction workers stabilize the base of the crane with wood and metal supports.