Second New York Construction Crane Collapse Raises Questions

New York–A construction crane collapse Friday morning on New York City’s Upper East Side killed at least one person and destroyed part of a 23-story apartment building in the city’s second fatal crane fall in 12 weeks, Bloomberg reports.The collapse–which damaged roughly a dozen floors of a nearby apartment building–occurred just after 8 a.m. at…

New York–A construction crane collapse Friday morning on New York City’s Upper East Side killed at least one person and destroyed part of a 23-story apartment building in the city’s second fatal crane fall in 12 weeks, Bloomberg reports.The collapse–which damaged roughly a dozen floors of a nearby apartment building–occurred just after 8 a.m. at 333 East 91st St. at First Avenue, according to the New York Fire Department.The fire department confirmed that one death occurred as a result of the accident.In his weekly radio address, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg called the incident “unacceptable.””We have to figure out what happened here,” he said. “The construction industry, obviously the real estate developers, don’t want you to shut it down but the bottom line is, number one, public safety and we’re not going to tolerate any rate of accidents any higher than it absolutely has to be.”On March 15, a crane buckled at 303 East 51st St., at Third Avenue, killing seven people. The incident led to the resignation of New York City Buildings Commissioner Patricia Lancaster and the arrest of buildings inspector Edward Marquette, who was charged with falsifying a record to say he had visited the construction site.Twenty-one claims were filed with the New York City Comptroller’s Office requesting more than $366 million as a result of the March collapse, spokesman Jeff Simmons said.