Death worker banned
City yanks his license for good in ’16 horror
MORE THAN two years after a crane collapsed and killed a man in lower Manhattan, the city’s Department of Buildings permanently revoked the crane operator’s license Wednesday.
Operator Kevin Reilly failed to follow the manufacturer’s instructions in anticipation of high winds and secure the crane the night before the Feb. 4, 2016, accident, Administrative Law Judge Ingrid Addison ruled on April 10.
The collapse killed David Wichs, 38, who was walking to his job at a trading firm, and injured three other people.
“Public safety requires that we hold crane operators to the highest standards,” said Buildings commissioner Rick Chandler.
During a 10-day hearing at the office of administrative trials and hearings last summer, Reilly argued that the actions of the city’s Buildings Department and MRA Engineering were to blame because they approved the plans for the job.
But Addison concluded Reilly was “ultimately responsible for (the crane’s) stowage and that he failed to lay the crane down on the eve of anticipated severe weather conditions.”
That ultimately fatal decision was “in violation of applicable laws and the manufacturer’s instructions.”
Addison’s 72-page decision acknowledged the plans filed with the city “contained a stowage plan for the crane that was unachievable” in part because it didn’t include permits for street closures.
But it was Reilly’s “license which was implicated from the moment that he touched the crane’s levers and . . . he bore the responsibility of deciding whether or not to operate the crane,” Addison ruled.
Still, the city failed to prove that on the day of the crash Reilly dangerously lowered the crane’s boom to a 72-degree angle, and the jib to a 49-degree angle.
City engineers unsuccessfully argued those adjustments occurred and made the crane unstable.
Addison’s decision also noted that Reilly “has been a crane operator for many years and has a reputation for safety and operating by the book.”
But that wasn’t enough to mitigate a recommendation to revoke his license because he failed to follow the manufacturer’s instructions and lay down the crane before a windy day, she added.
After the crash, the Buildings Department also issued multiple violations to Reilly, totaling $52,000 in fines.
Reilly’s lawyer vowed to appeal, which would entail arguing the decision was “arbitrary and capricious” in court.
“The issue is precisely the safety of our city,” said lawyer Stacey Richman, noting “we have not been notified of the revocation.”
“Safety requires that we hold the Department of Buildings, contractors and engineers to the highest standards so that the operator who has no say in the design of the plan and who is called in at the very last minute is not placed in a position as Mr. Reilly was,” she said.
“The Department of Buildings approved plans that it should not have approved and that it had refused to approve in other contemporaneous jobs,” she added.
“The scapegoating of the individual operator with a career of safe operation . . . is not the salve for the safety of our city. It was clear that the engineer, contractor and DOB knew the plans were of concern.
“This ruling,” she continued, “impacts an operator. The DOB, whose credo is safety, needs reassessment.”