New York City Crane Collapse

On March 15^th, 2008, a six ton crane collapsed in New York city killing 7 people. The collapse was believed to happen due to a massive piece of steel, which was used to secure the crane to a new high rise building, came loose and fell on a second support nine stories below. This caused whole crane to topple 22 stories below. When the crane collapsed it collapsed on a town house and few other buildings.

High rise construction is a very risky in NYC. There are constructions all over the city and accidents are bound happen. Some of these accidents are fatal and some are not that serious. What makes this case interesting is that the crane was inspected the day before and logged to be safe. Then why did the crane collapse? Another interesting fact about this case is that, on March 4^th a complaint was filed against the crane and an inspection was done by Edward Marquette, but later it was learned that the inspection was never done. Had Marquette actually done the inspection on March 4^th, would it have prevented the accident 11 days later? Officials believe that it would not have prevented the accident because the parts that failed where not on site on the day of the inspection. But even after the new parts were installed an inspection should have been done. It is also learned later that many safety complaints were filed against the crane and Marquette was the one responsible for the inspections.

The really question here is that would the proper inspection of the crane prevented the collapse and would it have saved the 7 lives that were lost? No one can really answer this question. Some people believe it would have and some believe it won’t have. I believe that it would have prevented the accident. Another question that is unanswered by the officials is that, who inspected the crane the day before it collapsed? If Marquette is the one who did the inspection, then the blame goes on him. The charges on him should be stricken and should face more time in jail, rather then the 4 years that he might get for falsifying the records.

It is sad that seven lives were lost but it also fortunate that lot more lives weren’t lost. As a safety inspector, Marquette has a lot of responsibilities on his hand. He has broken the trust that the people of NYC has placed in him. Other inspectors should learn from his mistakes and make NYC proud.

Source:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/17/nyregion/17building.html?ex=1221364800&en=d3e458bf0f1704b3&ei=5087&excamp=OVGNcranecollapsenyc&WT.srch=1&WT.mc_ev=click&WT.mc_id=GN-S-E-YH-NA-NA-crane_collapse_nyc

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/03/20/crane.accident.ap/index.html?eref=rss_topstories