NYC crane collapses into street, kills 2 workers

[May 31, 2008]  NEW YORK (AP) -- A huge crane that broke apart, smashed into a New York City neighborhood and killed people for the second time in 2 1/2 months has renewed residents' fears about living near construction sites and has prompted beleaguered city officials to call a safety summit.

"This is a meltdown," Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer said Friday after the 200-foot crane toppled on the Upper East Side, where a 32-story condo complex was going up. "We need bold action. ... As things stand now in Manhattan, I would never even stand under scaffolding."

The crane was turning to pick up a load of materials from the street when it tipped over, crashed into an apartment building and tumbled to the street, construction worker Scott Bair said.

Bair said the crane's turntable, which is used to help the crane change direction, appeared to fall off before the collapse. The city's acting Buildings Commissioner, Robert LiMandri, said investigators "will be focusing on a particular weld that failed" on the 24-year-old Kodiak crane.

The pieces of twisted steel in the street and wrecked buildings echoed the March 15 collapse of a crane into a town house 40 blocks away from Friday's accident. Seven people were killed then, prompting a new round of crane inspections and calls for construction safety.

LiMandri on Friday said the Department of Buildings would inspect the four Kodiak cranes operating in the city, saying the model was out of production. He suspended several crane operations across the city for the weekend and called an emergency meeting of experts Saturday to address crane safety.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg called the accident "unacceptable and intolerable" but said the city appeared to have followed regulations.

"Sadly, we have construction accidents all over the world," he added.

He also said the crane collapse didn't resemble the accident in March and defended the Department of Buildings, which had its commissioner resign in April under pressure after a spate of deadly accidents in a supercharged building boom. More than two dozen construction workers were killed in the past year.

"DOB didn't crash," the mayor said. "It was the crane that collapsed."

The crane toppled just after 8 a.m., destroying a penthouse apartment across the street and knocking off balconies on the apartment building as it plunged 20 stories into a heap of twisted steel.

"It sounded like an airplane hit the building," said John Jorgensen, who lived on the fifth floor across the street.

"The sound was like a thunder clap. Then, an earthquake," said Peter Barba, who lives on the seventh floor.

Killed were the crane operator, Donald Leo, 30, and another worker, Ramadan Kurtaj, 27. A third construction worker, Simeon Alexis, 32, was seriously injured, and one pedestrian was treated for minor injuries.

Leo, of Monmouth Beach, N.J., had planned to get married in three weeks and honeymoon in Greece. His fiancee, Janine Belcastro, said her "heart is broken."

Kurtaj had moved to the United States from Peja, Kosovo, about two years ago and lived with relatives in the Bronx.

Bair said one of the workers on his 40-man crew was taken to a hospital with his "chest slashed open." His eyes filled with tears, Bair said his own life was saved because he left to get an egg sandwich for breakfast a block away just before the collapse.

"I thought, 'I'm hungry, and I want to go get something to eat' - and that saved my life," he said. When he returned to the site, "everyone was shook up and crying. These are some hardened men, but they were crying."

In New York, the general contractor on the project, Leon D. DeMatteis Construction Corp., said subcontractor Sorbara Construction was in charge of operating the crane. A woman who answered the telephone at Sorbara said no one was available to comment.

In the March 15 accident, contractors building a 46-story condominium near the United Nations, about 2 miles from the site of Friday's accident, were trying to lengthen the crane when a steel support broke. A four-story town house was demolished, and several other buildings were damaged.

Buildings Commissioner Patricia Lancaster resigned under pressure a month later. The city also added extra inspections at building sites and required that its staff be on hand whenever the cranes were raised. But this week, the department said an inspector no longer had to be present.

---

Associated Press reporters David B. Caruso, Verena Dobnik and Adam Goldman and researcher Susan James contributed to this report.

[Associated Press; By AMY WESTFELDT]

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.