HE TOLD US - KIN
Fatal-fall vic was worried about job site
AN ELECTRICIAN who fell to his death at a Chelsea construction site often told relatives that safety conditions on the job were lacking, his heartbroken brother said Friday.
“He has acknowledged these guys needed to tighten their stuff up,” Cesar Pacheco, 47, said about his brother Joseph (pictured). “He would say, ‘These guys gotta do safety stuff and make sure they’re on point, we need to make sure these guys are tethered.’”
At about 2 p.m. Thursday, Joseph Pacheco, a father of two, fell 36 feet to the ground from a bucket lift at a Ninth Ave. construction site near W. 33rd St.
“He said that the environment needed to be more controlled,” Pacheco, who is also an electrician, said. “(He worked) 20 years, and now he dies?” A second worker, 44-year-old Romel Qualls, also tumbled off the bucket lift, and remained at Bellevue Hospital on Friday.
“He broke a lot of bones,” a neighbor said.
The construction site is the future home of 1 Manhattan West, a 69-story skyscraper near the Hudson Yards.
In June, another worker plunged to his death at the same site. Roger Vail, 62, was doing a survey on the 16th floor when he stepped through a wooden platform.
The city issued a stop-work order after Vail’s death, but rescinded it a few weeks later when a safety plan was hammered out.
The city’s Department of Building was investigating what led to Pacheco’s death Friday.
His brother called the electrician “the most loving person you ever met in your life.”
“All this man did was go to work, put in his time and try to come home,” his brother said as tears streamed down his face. “He is the world’s most hardworking, pipe-bending electrician. He took pride in his craft.”
Pacheco was the second construction worker to die on the job Thursday.
Earlier in the day, Juan Chonillo, 36, of Corona, Queens, plummeted 29 stories at a work site on Maiden Lane near South St. in lower Manhattan. He died at the scene.
The twin tragedies reignited fierce calls for safety improvements at city construction sites.
“This is not right,” Cesar Pacheco said. “Let’s work on it. My brother deserves so much (more) enlightenment.” ALBAny — After a pair of construction workers plunged to their deaths this week, a state lawmaker says it’s time to crack down on negligent developers. State Assemblyman Francisco moya (D-Queens) called for the Legislature to pass Carlos’ Law, which would stiffen criminal penalties against construction site managers who fail to follow safety protocols and cause serious injuries or deaths. the bill is named after construction worker Carlos moncayo, who died on a construction site in 2015. it was approved by the Assembly in the spring but died in the GoP-controlled Senate. “We can no longer go on calling these accidents when we know for sure they occur like clockwork,” moya said. Under moya’s bill, construction site managers or developers could face felony charges if they were found responsible for the severe injury or death of their worker. they would also face a $500,000 fine.