Yet Another Bay Crane Services Accident Kills Manhattan Man, Injures 3 Others
On Friday, February 5, a crane owned by Bay Crane Services collapsed in Lower Manhattan, killing one man and injuring three other victims. According to reports from The New York Times, among other outlets, workers decided to lower the crane to a secure level around 8 a.m. due to wind gusts and falling snow. The crane, which was stretching more than 15 stories high, began to topple over while its boom was being lowered, falling to the ground and extending more than a city block.
This crane collapse marks the latest in a series of incidents regarding both Bay Crane Services and Galasso Trucking and Rigging, the company operating the crane during Friday’s incident.
In October 2015, 24-year-old Nicholas Dumont of Pawtucket, RI, was killed when he fell about 40 feet while working on a warehouse in Taunton, MA. May 2015, a crane owned by Bay Crane Services dropped a massive heating and air-conditioning unit atop a building in Midtown, injuring 10. And in March 2015, a Bay Crane worker named Timothy Foucher lost two-thirds of his left hand in an accident at La Guardia Airport when a plane slipped as it was being hoisted into a trailer.
Per CBSNews.com, Bay Crane Services has been cited for safety violations four times since 2011.Galasso Trucking and Rigging has faced at least eight accident lawsuits in the past five years, according to the New York Post.
Friday’s crane collapse killed David Wichs, a 38-year-old Harvard-educated mathematician, and injured three other people. A 45-year-old woman injured her leg and suffered a cut on her head, while a 73-year-old man sustained a head wound and a third victim suffered minor injuries. According to the Daily News, the collapse likely would’ve injured more people had its operator not steered the falling crane away from buildings and toward the street.
While officials are still investigating the cause of the collapse, reports indicate that wind may have been a factor. The crane is classified as a “crawler” and is rated to withstand wind gusts of up to 25 miles per hour, but NBC New York reports that nine minutes before the collapse, a 37 mph gust was recorded at a weather station about 1.4 miles away. After the collapse of the crane, all 376 mobile cranes registered in the city, as well as 43 larger tower cranes, were ordered to be put in secure positions.
