Another crane topples in New York

From The New York Times:

A crane toppled and collapsed onto a high-rise apartment building on East 91st Street on the Upper East Side on Friday morning, tearing off balconies and leaving a swath of damage, in the second Manhattan crane collapse in two months.

At least two people have been pulled from the wreckage, at the southwest corner of 91st Street and First Avenue. Their condition was not immediately known, according to Fire Department officials.

The crane, which was apparently being used for a construction project at 354 East 91st Street, on the northwest corner of the intersection, collapsed onto the north facade of the building. The damage extends from the building’s top floor, about 20 stories up, to the second floor.

Traffic was blocked in both directions at the intersection, where ambulances, fire trucks, and police personnel were gathered. Residents of the building peeked their heads out from windows to survey the damage.

The accident occurred just two months after a tower crane collapsed on East 51st Street between Second and First Avenues, killing seven people and prompting an extensive review of the safety of the city’s cranes.

You will remember in the previous crane collapse that the inspector who had just signed off on the safety of the crane was arrested due to the fact that he failed to actually perform any on-site inspection. Given the political culture of New York City (especially now that a raving left-wing kook like Bloomberg is mayor rather than a sensible adult like Rudolph Giuliani) I suspect that there is rather a lot of that kind of thing going on.

I recommend that they hire a firm from outside the Northeast to reinspect all the city's cranes. And it wouldn't be a bad idea to have people from the DA's office or NYPD accompany those inspectors in the field either.