Woman shoveling snow is hit, killed as doorframe collapses
A 74-year-old woman was killed while shoveling snow off the front steps of her Brooklyn brownstone Tuesday when the doorframe above her collapsed, police said.
Dale Singer was on the steps of her home on Sixth Ave. near 54th St. in Sunset Park about 12:20 p.m. when a portion of the stone doorframe above her crumbled, according to cops.
Shocking video obtained by the Daily News shows the stones toppling down, striking Singer and piling up on top of her.
Singer was found by her son as he investigated a loud, crashing sound he heard outside.
“All I know is I heard a sound, the sound of the facade falling,” said Wylie Singer. “I ran downstairs to see my mother at the bottom of the landing unconscious, dead.”
A neighbor and friend watched as firefighters called to the scene performed CPR on Dale Singer.
“That big piece over the door was what hit her,” said the woman, who did not want to be named. “I feel so sorry for her.”
Medics raced to the scene and took Singer to nearby Maimonides Medical Center, but she could not be saved.
Dale Singer rented an apartment in the building, where she lived with her family. After the collapse, her husband arrived on the scene and quickly got in a cab bound for the hospital, a witness said.
“She was a lovely person,” said the woman. “I don’t know how the face of the building came down like that.”
Before the Tuesday collapse, the last complaint associated with the twounit building was in 1991 for an illegal curb cutout and driveway, according to city records.
Dale Singer’s friend said the landlord was eager to get the building off his hands but had trouble selling it.
The property owner has been issued a violation for failure to maintain the building and a vacate order has been issued to tenants, according to a Buildings Department spokesman.