CRANE SWAYS AND STRIKES BUILDING, SENDING BRICKS FLYING; THANKFULLY, NO ONE HURT
From: New York attorney Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx; Queens Injury Attorney)
At about 7:30 PM on Saturday, March 27, 2010, a 250-foot-tall crane struck the top of a building at 80 Maiden Lane near Wall Street in Manhattan, dropping bricks to the ground. The crane struck the 25-story building at about its 23rd floor parapet - which is a decorative barrier that sticks out from the surface of the building.
The crane was being used during the day to install large air conditioners. The work site was closed at the time of the accident.
Firefighters responded, streets were closed, apartments evacuated, and traffic re-routed. New York City's Building Department is inspecting to determine the extent of the damage.
No injuries were reported from this accident.
New York City officials say it is too early to tell if the crane owner was negligent or if there was ant wrongdoing.
While the latest episode did not appear to cause serious damage, it shook up New York City residents, who that experienced two fatal crane collapses over a two-month period, the first of which occurred almost exactly two years ago.
Comment: Eerily reminiscent of my prior blawg posts on New York City crane disasters. In mid-March 2008, seven people were killed when a crane slammed into residential buildings on East 51st Street, destroying a town house. And two construction workers were killed in May 2008, when a crane fell at a construction site on East 91st Street; this not so much an accident as criminal negligence by the crane owner.
