ONE KILLED AS CRANE COLLAPSES ON NY STREET
NEW YORK: It may take weeks to determine why a huge construction crane that was being lowered during strong winds came crashing down onto a street, killing a pedestrian and crushing a row of parked cars, city officials said.
Investigators are reviewing surveillance footage from nearby buildings and poring over the twisted, crumpled steel of the 172m-long crane, which came thundering down onto a historic Manhattan street 10 blocks north of the World Trade Center during Friday morning’s commute.
Officials said they recovered the mobile crane’s movement recording computer, which could provide clues – such as the angle of the boom – as to why the crane fell. But they cautioned its data was just one piece of the puzzle.
“It is not the equivalent of a black box,” Department of Buildings Commissioner Rick Chandler said. “But I don’t want to set the expectations too high. It’s not going to give us data on wind speeds or the actions of the operators.”
Work crews crawling over the sprawling accident site began to slice up the downed crane into as many as 35 pieces, which will be loaded by four other cranes onto flatbed trucks and removed for further study. Officials said they hoped to have the block of Worth Street cleared of debris by Monday morning.
It could be several days, though, before buildings whose pipes were crushed can have their water restored and before crews can repave the street and sign off on its stability.
Wall Street worker David Wichs, 38, was walking on the street below and was killed by the crane collapse.
He was a mathematical whiz who worked at a computerised-trading firm, his family said. Born in Prague, he had moved to the United States as a teenager and graduated from Harvard University, said his sisterin-law, Lisa Guttman.
“He really created a life for himself,” she said through tears.