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Vol. 72/No. 19      May 12, 2008

 
N.Y. official resigns as
construction deaths mount
 
BY NANCY BOYASKO  
NEW YORK—Amid growing criticism around an increase in fatal construction accidents, New York City Buildings Commissioner Patricia Lancaster resigned April 22. Thirteen construction workers have been killed on the job so far this year, compared to 12 for all of 2007.

Last month five workers, a foreman, and a tourist were killed and dozens injured when a crane collapsed while it was being extended. Other accidents in recent months include a fatal fall at a SoHo construction site, a building collapse in Harlem, and a fatal fall in Queens by a window installer.

At an April 17 City Council hearing, Lancaster admitted that New York’s Buildings Department should not have issued a permit to the site where the crane collapsed since it did not conform to zoning regulations. The department now says that the 43-story design was too tall and violated four local zoning regulations—facts that were all known before the March 15 crane collapse.

There had been 38 complaints about the construction site, as well as a number of violations, 13 of which were open at the time of the collapse.

“The violations had nothing to do with this,” said mayor Michael Bloomberg after the collapse. “Every large construction site has violations. They were not serious.”

Retired ironworker Kerry Walker, who lives next to the construction site, had complained to the Buildings Department that the crane appeared dangerously unstable. On March 4, retired contractor Bruce Silberblatt had complained that the crane was not sufficiently braced. Crane inspector Edward Marquette was sent to check the site. He was arrested on March 20 after it was revealed that he never visited the site and had filed a fake report.

City officials claim that the crane was inspected on March 14 in preparation for being “jumped.”

Lancaster attributed the increase in accidents on the city’s construction boom. According to statistics released last fall, 29 laborers died in work-related accidents in New York City from September 2006 to September 2007, a 61 percent increase over the previous year. In 2006 the number of construction deaths was 43—an 87 percent increase over the previous year.

The majority of the deaths last year occurred at nonunion work sites.

Nonunion construction worker Daniel Colman described the conditions nonunion workers face. “At one building site, 32 floors were put up in 6 months. This many floors usually takes about a year… . Many hurt workers return to work the next day because we are not paid for time off due to injury.”  
 
 
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