04.09.2008

Tower crane erector falls in New York

A tower crane erector, helping dissmantle a crane, fell 48 stories – around 170 metres to his death at a construction site at West 41st Street and 11th Avenue in New York today.

The man, Anthony Esposito fell from a platform attached to the crane, which apparently tilted casuing him to loose his balance, he was apparently wearing a harness but his lanyard was not connected.

The authorities said the accident occurred in a rear courtyard at 600 West 42nd Street, where the developer Larry A. Silverstein is building the Silver Towers, a 1,350-unit residential building scheduled to open next year.

Deputy chief Anthony DeVita of the New York Fire Department said that the worker lost his footing on the walkway about 48 floors up. The general contractor on the site is Gotham Construction, and the concrete subcontractor is DiFama Concrete.

DiFama has a history of safety violations on projects in Manhattan and has been fined repeatedly according to federal records. A DiFama employee died in January when he fell 42 stories from the top of the Trump SoHo building being built on Varick and Spring Streets.

An employee also died in November 2004, after falling 20 metres from the platform of a tower crane on a seven-storey building on 53rd Street.

After the 2004 accident, inspectors for the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited DiFama for failing to provide sufficient safety devices designed to prevent falls from the crane and fined the company $3,500.

Initial investigations are focusing in the platform's method of attachment to the crane and whether a guardrail had been removed.