Another deadly crane collapse
Top story right now on all the cable news stations: another deadly crane collapse in NYC that reportedly has claimed two lives. (Update: 1 dead, two seriously injured.) The NYPost has extensive coverage. NY’s Fox 5 is livestreaming. The accident is the second in 2 1/2 months in NY and comes on the heels of crane regulation revisions by the city just this week. Miami-Dade County is in the middle of heated debate and litigation over post-accident rules. Maryland, Washington, and Indiana are also drafting tighter regs.
It would be helpful for journalists to report what the background rates on crane-related deaths and injuries are. Also, the coverage should distinguish between types of accidents (human error, mechanical failure, etc.). Here’s one report on offshore crane safety that covers 1995-98. Here’s an ABC report with a little more info on stats and causes, among which they mention illegal alien labor and corporate short cuts:
At least 43 people died while working construction in New York in 2006, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, up 87 percent from the year before when 23 people died.
Across the United States, construction ranks as the most dangerous industry, representing about 20 percent of all work-related fatalities, according to federal statistics.
Deaths rose from 1,131 in 2003 to 1,226 in 2006. By comparison, 836 workers died in mining accidents last year, and 447 died in manufacturing. The government reports between six and seven construction deaths per 1,000 workers.
Nationwide, deaths from falling off scaffolding remained steady at about 88 per year…
…The rise in construction fatalities can be explained by a deadly mix of untrained immigrant workers, lax attention to safety regulations and profit-minded contractors who cut corners in all areas from labor to materials.
“There is a tremendous pressure, particularly in construction, to put pressure on workers to be productive and to take short cuts,” said Joel Shufro, executive director of the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health.
Fines for employers who violate regulations are low — averaging only about $1,600 an incident, according to Shufro. When a worker is killed, the maximum punishment is six months in jail.
“Fines for harassing a burro on federal land are greater,” he said. “But they do the best they can with limited resources.”
Bovis Lend Lease, the company that is handling the Trump project, released a statement to the Associated Press saying they would launch an investigation of the worker’s death.
“Our hearts go out to the family of the deceased concrete worker, and our prayers are with the injured workers,” said Mary Costello, company spokesman.
What is most startling in these accidents is the disproportionate number of immigrant deaths — and not only in New York, where illegal workers make up 86 percent of all fatalities.
While urban areas are facing a building boom, more rural areas are feeling the effects of a slowing economy, according to construction experts. Unions and employers say they face increased competition from those who hire cheap, illegal immigrants.
Here’s another round-up of links to recent crane regulation moves.
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What is going on w/ these cranes??
Cheaper. No safety equipment. Idiotic.
I was wondering when – or, even, if – that word would pop up in the excerpt.
As long as we live in a society that goes for the cheapest solution to a problem instead of the best solution we will have problems like this. It starts at the top with government contracts and purchasing and works its’ way through our entire society. Writing more regulations may solve this issue but the only way to solve the problem is to look at how we make our decisions and see if there may be a better way.
Cheaper comes with a price…if it is not a crane, it will be a bridge or a school collapsing.
So…if I understand this correctly?…Contractors and employers using “untrained immigrant labor” are putting those employees in danger…
Seems to me that reinforces the notion that employer sanctions against hiring illegal aliens MIGHT be a good idea….
Just doing the jobs Americans won’t do.
That was sarcasm right?
Naaaaah! That would make too much sense, Tom. That, surely, can’t be the answer to it.
Somehow this is reminiscent of the Burma population reduction by storm plan. People are cheap, why worry?
You’re exactly right!
My uncle operated a crane for Ashland Oil for nearly thirty years, and he and his co-workers never experienced a serious accident. He accredits this to strict adherence to all safety regulations, participation in all routine worker retraining-safety courses, and because of the company’s superior equipment maintenance schedules and regulations; in particular, their use of quality, usually American made, replacement parts for all cranes and heavy machinery.
Bloomberg, is too busy suing gun manufacturers and gun dealers to be bothered with crane problems.
That’s true, the cheapest bid always gets the greenlight. More often than not, steps are sometimes missed. Another terrible tragedy.
They have to get crane inspectors that have a little more affluence instead of these drunken losers who sign their name on the report then pass out in the gutter.
This is just another price being paid to turn NYC into a yuppie paradise. As someone who was born and raised in the city and still goes there often I can tell you that in recent years NYC has become one giant building zone. Especially the upper east side. There are cranes EVERYWHERE.It is just one stale condo high rise after another. The problem is unqualified (illegal) employees, ruthless developers looking to cut corners and save a buck and a mayor who doesnt give a s**t. I have personally seen an entire square block of working class tenements (where relatives lived) leveled to make room for ultra expensive condos. New york has become a theme park for tourists and a place where only the rich and poor can afford to live.I am all for free enterprise and am a conservative but this is not only unfair but now deadly as well.
Statistically it’s hard to explain so many of these are happening in NYC as “coincidence.”
I can speculate as well as the next guy, but factually I have no idea what the root cause is.
But, again, mathematically it sure looks like there *is* a root cause. Otherwise you’d be seeing this all over the world, and you just aren’t…
My husband works on and inspects cranes for a major corp. and he tells me all the time that he is pressured to OK machines that are NOT OK. He never does it because he could not live with himself if someone were hurt or killed. Also, he could be held liable. He sees safety violations all the time.
He has contractors pi$$ed at him all the time because he refuses to cut corners.
Even if the crane is built in the US, where does the material come from to build it? If from China, we all know what their quality products has been shipped to us. Almost everything we get comes from that bunch, and it all stinks.
L
Maybe New York is different but I do some work on cranes in the DC area and around here inspection and repair is serious business – you don’t see shoddy work and, if anything, inspections are a little too strict.
But like I say, the New York construction business might be a whole different animal.
“But like I say, the New York construction business might be a whole different animal.”
Between ruthless developers and the Mob? You better believe it.
I am so glad to be out of the construction business. Most of these large projects are nothing but Towers of Babel.