Back in 1979, the death of a 17-year old college student at one of the country’s most prestigious universities shook the city. She was needlessly killed when a large piece of masonry fell from one of the school’s most neglected building facades. Now, 42 years later, the same prestigious university has been issued numerous safety citations over yet another one of their decaying structures.
Ultimately, the school was ordered to erect a scaffold and a sidewalk shed in order to avoid any other deadly accidents.
Last March, in Queens, a 35-year old construction worker who was riding on the back of a transport vehicle was killed when the driver of the vehicle failed to lower the forklift. The victim hit his head on a low ceiling, fell off, and was pinned by the vehicle.
This same construction property had been issued four stop-work orders last year, and had more than 50 active violations including working without a permit. Unfortunately, there were signs that a fatality was likely to happen. And last May, a security guard was killed and a 27-year old construction worker was hurt when an 8 X 14 foot panel of glass fell from one of Manhattan’s tallest skyscrapers.
In all instances, the buildings/construction management had been inspected and warned to get their operations up to code. As is too often the case, many of these tragic accidents could have been avoided if building owners/construction site management simply obeyed the law.
