New York halts all use of cranes, Graphic: Crane deaths highest in South, West

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-crane30-2008may31,0,224318.story

Two construction workers are killed in the latest collapse. The city wants time to investigate the cause.
By Michael Frazier and Rocco Parascandola, Newsday
May 31, 2008

NEW YORK -- Officials suspended all crane operations throughout the city this weekend while they investigated the cause of the latest crane collapse, which killed two construction workers Friday and badly injured a third as it crashed into an apartment building and plummeted to the street.

The collapse -- at a site the city had investigated several times -- comes after a March 15 crane disaster that killed seven people. That prompted stepped-up inspections and the resignation of the buildings commissioner.



Bebeto Matthews / Associated Press
AFTERMATH: An official inspects the remainder of a construction crane, left, that collapsed in New York and killed two workers. The investigation will focus on a weld that failed, an official said. Seven people died in a similar accident March 15.

Acting Commissioner Robert LiMandri suspended all city crane operations until Monday.

The latest accident happened just past 8 a.m. at a site where workers have erected 13 floors of what is to be a 32-story residential building.



The crane snapped from its turntable about 200 feet above street level, its cab, boom and machine deck crashing into an apartment building across the street, authorities said.

No one in the building was hurt. But crane operator Donald Leo, 30, was dead by the time rescuers removed him from the cab.

Leonard Lorusso and his girlfriend, Lauren Dunn, lived in the building struck by the crane. "We just heard metal and scraping, and it was so loud," Lorusso said.

FULL story at link.