Crane Collapse

Yes, there's been another crane collapse in New York City (in fact, Manhattan again). Reports so far are saying that one person is dead and two seriously injured as a result of the crane collapse.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg says one person is dead and two are seriously injured following a construction crane collapse on Manhattan's Upper East Side.

The crane struck an apartment building on Friday before crashing onto the street below. Bloomberg says seven buildings have been evacuated as a precaution.

It was the city's second deadly crane accident in 2 1/2 months. Bloomberg calls the latest collapse "unacceptable" and says the city will investigate.

An earlier report confirmed that one person had died and it wasn't known how many were injured:

A construction crane has collapsed in Manhattan, smashing into a 23-storey apartment building before crashing onto the street below and leaving at least one person dead.

It was the city's second deadly crane accident in two and-a-half months. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the latest collapse was "unacceptable," and the city would investigate.

"The sound was like a thunder clap. Then, an earthquake," said Peter Barba, who lives on the seventh floor of the building across the street from the construction site that was hit by the crane.

One body was brought out of the rubble at East 91st Street and First Avenue, placed on a gurney and covered in a white sheet. A construction worker knelt over the stretcher, gently stroking the sheet.

And here's the New York Times report on the crane collapse (although, to be honest, it reads rather more like the NY Post in its breathlessness).

A crane toppled and collapsed onto a high-rise apartment building on East 91st Street on the Upper East Side on Friday morning, tearing off balconies and raining broken brick and shattered glass onto the street below, in the second Manhattan crane collapse in two months. At least one person, the operator of the crane, who was sitting in the cab as the structure fell, was killed, officials said.

It might just be conicidence that this is the second such collapse in as many months for cranes in the City:

Three more bodies were found beneath the rubble on Monday, raising to seven the number of people killed when a giant crane fell and crushed a residential building in Manhattan, a police spokeswoman said.    

The crane flipped over on Saturday, flattening a four-story townhouse with a bar on the lower level and damaging three other buildings, injuring more than 10 people.

Six of those killed were believed to be construction workers, including the crane's operator. The seventh victim was a woman visiting New York from Florida, police said.

   

For of course coincidences do indeed happen. But there are also other reasons for such rashes of accidents: my guess is that there's going to be some investigation of the crane safety inspectors. No inside knowledge there, just a hunch.