New York – A construction crane that was being secured because of heavy winds broke down in lower Manhattan. Mayor de Blasio said on Friday morning that the accident killed a person who was in a parked car, and three others were injured.
The accident occurred near 40 Worth Street in TriBeCa. It was reported that the crawler crane owned by Bay Crane collided against some buildings before it fell down over parked cars,when workers were trying to secure it against winds of up to 20 mph, said de Blasio, according to USA Today.
A 38-year-old man was killed as a consequence of the collapse, also, three people were injured by falling debris from buildings. By Friday morning, more than 100 firefighters with more than 30 trucks were already working at the place.
De Blasio thanked God because it could have been worse if more workmen and people were at the scene. He explained that personnel were already in the process of securing the crane to bring it down.
“It will certainly take several days, certainly no earlier than Monday, possibly longer, before we can get things back to normal in these immediate blocks. Our department of buildings personnel had been on the site yesterday to approve the next steps in the work on that building,” Mayor de Blasio said on Friday morning. “They had inspected the crane yesterday morning at 6:20 a.m. and reviewed the work that was being done and had approved it.”
The construction equipment was composed by a boom mounted on an undercarriage, which can support up to 330 tons of weight, said USA Today. On Thursday morning, the City Department of Building had approved the installation of an extension on the upper part of the boom.
As a security measure, New York has ordered that all construction cranes across the city must be checked and secured, until officials establish the cause of the accident. A similar situation occurred in 2008 in New York City, when a crane toppled over on the East Side of Manhattan. As a consequence, four people were killed and dozens were injured.
Source: USA Today