Construction Site Accidents on the Rise

March 17, 2008— -- Crews were still at work Monday removing debris from Saturday's crane crash that killed seven people, injured at least 10 and damaged several buildings.

The accident happened on a weekend when the buildings that were crushed were mostly empty. "We would be dead if it wasn't on a Saturday," Bryan Beus, an assistant for an artist who had office space in a demolished brownstone, told the Associated Press.

Though Stephen Kaplan, who owns the company that manages the construction site, called the incident a "freak accident," crane-related disasters are nothing new.

According to the Department of Buildings there were eight crane-related accidents and 10 crane-related injuries in 2007 in New York City alone.

Just recently, a nylon sling holding up seven tons of steel snapped, releasing its cargo onto an office trailer and nearly killing an architect working on the site. There are currently 200 high-rise construction sites operating in New York City, providing ample opportunity for accidents like Saturday's.

Crane mishaps happen regularly, destroying structures and injuring or even killing anyone who gets in the way.

In August 2007, a worker was crushed while trying to dismantle a crane.

EarIier in 2007, a 3,000-pound steel wall fell from a crane in Las Vegas, killing four workers.

New York cabbie Chrislorme Paul was driving along when his vehicle was crushed by a four-ton chunk of steel rigging that fell 20 stories from a crane in September 2006. Luckily, he and the other four people involved (three construction workers and a passenger in Paul's cab) escaped with only minor injuries.

According to The Daily News, New York's building boom has triggered a 12 percent increase in high-rise development and an 83 percent increase in construction-related accidents.

Consequently, the demand for crane operators has spiked and contractors are constantly racing against the clock to finish jobs, leaving room for careless errors or missed inspections. The punishment for violations is small. The most serious fine against contractors averages $1,700 for projects that cost millions, even billions of dollars.