Close But Trench Worker Still Dead

Trench Worker's Death

The article below from The Troy Record, written by Andrew J. Bernstein describes an incident that shows that even if you try to do the best you can and provide the best safe work practices, just one wrong move can be fatal. Apparently the excavation was extended some 30 feet, the sides were not sloped not braced. The apparently entered the improperly shored or sloped ditch, the side collapsed burying the worker.

The contractor is to be commended on their safe work practices, however, this just shows that one let down on one safety procedure can be fatal.

Remember, Think the Safe Way, Work it Safely.

Ditch contractor called stickler for safety

By:Andrew J. Bernstein, Special to the Record

10/21/2008

CLIFTON PARK - Steven Fiske, who employed the construction worker killed in a trench collapse on Monday, is known to his employees as being a "nut on safety."

Brian Baker, a Stephentown-based attorney representing Fiske, said his client told him that in 17 years of construction he had never had an employee injured on the job.

"Steve only has seven employees, and he is deeply effect by this, and terribly saddened," said Baker.

On Tuesday, the Saratoga County Sheriff's Office identified the victim in the collapse as Brett R. Peck, 20, of Lennox, Mass. Baker said that Peck had been working for Fiske for several months, and had worked for another contractor prior to working for Fiske.

Terry Harding, assistant area director for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), said the accident was probably avoidable, adding that there appeared to have been violations of the agency's regulations of safe practices for digging trenches.

She added that this was the second trench collapse her office had investigated this year, but the first one that involved a fatality.

John Chavez, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Labor, which oversees OSHA, said safe trenching practices can include the use shoring to support walls. Alternately, trench walls can be sloped to stabilize them.

Baker explained that Peck had previously dug a section of trench, and sloped the sides, as his supervisor instructed him to do.

"The young man dug another ten to 15 feet and was supposed to slope that too, those were his clear instruction, but it appears he did not do that. It appears to us that he was aware that the soil was loosed more than you would ordinarily like," Baker said.

The ditch was about three feet wide, Baker said, and had been dug using an excavator in preparation for laying a 50-foot perforated drainage pipe. Fire officials said on Monday that the trench was between six and eight feet deep.

Although Baker said Pecks' reason for going into the trench was not clear, he may have been preparing to connect a ten-foot section of pipe when the walls collapsed.

Saratoga County Coroner John DeMartino, who examined Peck's body, said the cause of death was asphyxiation.

On Tuesday, the Sheriff's office released further details of the rescue, noting that first responders attempted to excavate Peck with their hands, and succeeded in uncovering his shoulder, at which time it was clear that he had died.

Jonesville Fire Chief Lou Pasquarell said at that point the decision to call in specialized equipment and personnel from the Stratton Air National Guard, New York State Office of Fire Prevention and Control, and Colonie Trench and Urban rescue was made to avoid placing emergency workers in an unsafe situation.

It took several hours to extricate Peck's body.

Harding said an investigation of the accident would include analyzing the soil content, protective measures taken by construction workers, and whether the trench had been inspected by a competent person.

She said the Fiske had been cooperating with the investigation, although he was not at the construction site when it collapsed.

Kitchen Fires

Home Fire Prevention

I received the following post as an email. I have seen fire demonstrations on home as well as on the job showing the dangers of improper ways of fire fighting safety, but this one literally "brings the facts to the forefront."

Kitchen Fire - Read this first, then watch the attached video...

I never realized that a wet dishcloth can be a one size fits all lid to cover a fire in a pan! This is a dramatic video (30-second, very short) about how to deal with a common kitchen fire... Oil in a frying pan. Read the following Introduction, then watch the show... It's a real eye-opener! At the Fire Fighting Training school they would demonstrate this with a deep fat fryer set on the fire field. An instructor would don a fire suit and using an 8 oz cup at the end of a 10 foot pole toss water onto the grease fire. The results got the attention of the students. The water, being heavier than oil, sinks to the bottom where it instantly becomes superheated. The explosive force of the steam blows the burning oil up and out. On the open field, it became a thirty foot high fireball that resembled a nuclear blast. Inside the confines of a kitchen, the fire ball hits the ceiling and fills the entire room. Also, do not throw sugar or flour on a grease fire. One cup of either creates the explosive force of two sticks of dynamite. This is a powerful message. Watch the video and don't forget what you see. Tell your whole family about this video. Or better yet, send this to them.

Did this get your attention?????????????

Got 'er Done, But Safely

Git 'er Done, But Do It Safely!

Get the job done in a big hurry before freezing weather. This is the theme of the article below from Market Watch. This article points out that there are more incidents that happen during the fall when contractors tend to push workers and possibly take shortcuts to safe work practices to complete outside work before winter ice and snow begins.

This post is directed to the New York area, but holds true to all sections of the country as there are many icy days all the way south to the Gulf of Mexico. Freezing temperatures are experienced in almost every state in the country, especially in the early morning hours.

Contractors and owners of project sites get in too much a rush to get the job done and add many extra personnel that have to work above or below other work going on or go into an overtime mode to work as much as 12 or more hours per day, seven days per week. This situation creates fatigue of the workers who in turn take shortcuts to safe work practices.

Another situation that takes place during this time of year is industrial plants using holiday times to do Shut Down work in a few short days around Thanksgiving and Christmas/New Year times. Shut downs (some refer to it as "Turn Overs") are usually perilous situations due to the long hours workers have to do to get the job done in a hurry.

I urge ALL contractors to place Very Close attention to Safe Work Practices during these rush, rush projects, especially this time of year.

Workers Are More at Risk for Accident Injuries on Construction Sites During the Fall and Winter

David Perecman, New York Construction Accident Attorney, Warns That Safety May Be Lax on a Construction Site as Contractors and Developers Rush Workers to Get Projects Done before the Winter Weather and Snow

Last update: 12:59 p.m. EDT Oct. 1, 2008

NEW YORK, Oct 01, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- New York construction accident attorney, David Perecman, warns the construction industries to carefully plan projects as the winter months arrive. The safety on construction sites can become very hazardous, very quickly as contractors and developers rush workers to get projects completed before winter arrives. As conditions worsen with wind and cold rain, surfaces become slippery. The Perecman Firm is reminding construction site workers to take extreme caution as the Fall and Winter seasons come and temperatures drop to avoid accidents and injuries on construction sites.

"This is the time of year when everyone wants to finish projects faster and may cut corners to get things done. There should be no compromise of the safety on a construction site just to get a project done faster," said David Perecman, lead construction accident attorney for New York's Perecman Firm. "Contractors and developers and New York City needs to monitor construction sites and penalize the managers and companies that force their employees to work in unsafe conditions or rushed conditions that cause less attention to safe work practices."

As winter approaches there are two problems to be aware of, rushing to get things done in the Fall season to avoid the delays of Winter weather and Winter weather itself. "Last year before the tragic weather related accidents I warned workers not to work in the snow. Every year there are accidents and injuries on construction sites due to windy and icy conditions. This year I am warning about the potential for developers and contractors to push the jobs because of the accidents that occurred last year. The New York Times reported that construction injuries have almost doubled from 23 in November of 2006 to 42 the same time in 2007."

About David Perecman and The Perecman Firm, PLLC:

For the past 25 years, New York construction accident attorney David H. Perecman, the founder of The Perecman Firm, PLLC has championed all types of personal injury and construction cases in New York State. David Perecman is the current Secretary of the New York State Trial Lawyers Association (NYSTLA) and a chair of its Labor Law (Construction Accident Law) Committee. Mr. Perecman's achievements, often in the construction accident field, have brought him recognition as an Honoree in the National Law Journal's 2008 Hall of Fame, in New York Magazine's 2007 publication of "The Best Lawyers in America" and has earned him the votes by his peers as among the top 5% of lawyers in the New York region as published in The New York Times Magazine "New York Super Lawyers, Metro Edition".

He has recovered millions of dollars for his clients over the course of his career. Among his more recent victories, Mr. Perecman won a $15 million verdict(1) for an injured NYC construction worker who fractured his arm and injured his knee. Mr. Perecman has spent much of his career advocating for injured victims' rights and safety on construction sites including his recent statements regarding New York City crane construction accidents. The New York personal injury attorneys at The Perecman Firm have a depth of expertise in and breadth of knowledge well recognized in NYC, while their record and reputation speaks for itself.

(1)Later settled while on appeal for $7.940 million.

SOURCE: David Perecman

For David Perecman, New York
Jay Berkowitz, 561-620-9121
jay@tengoldenrules.com

It's About Time

OSHA Finally to Issue
Crane Standard Update

According to the article below by Market Watch, finally, OSHA has "Announced" that they are "going" to issue new Crane Standards. Now that they have "Announced" the changes, it will take a little less than two years to become effective!

The announcement heavily emphasizes that all Crane Operators will be formally tested by an authorized company. The primary thing that I see that is missing is that it DOES NOT address any required training for Riggers and Supervisors of lifting operations. The Operators are limited as to what they can do from the Operator's Cab. The riggers are the ones who do all the attachment that go on the hooks. The Supervisors are the ones who, ultimately are the ones that oversee the whole operation and safe lifting of the load. ALL THREE GROUPS SHOULD BE TRAINED AND BE ABLE TO READ THE CRANE'S LOAD CHART AND SHOULD KNOW THE WEIGHT OF THE LOAD.

OSHA to issue proposed cranes and derricks construction standard

Last update: 3:05 p.m. EDT Sept. 18, 2008

WASHINGTON, Sept 18, 2008 /PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX/ -- The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) today announced that a proposed rule for cranes and derricks in construction will be published shortly in the Federal Register.

A current copy of the proposed standard is available on OSHA's Web site at http://www.osha.gov/doc/proposedrule/Cranes_Derricks_Proposed_Rule.html for the public to review. The public comment period on the proposed rule will only begin after the proposal has been formally published in the Federal Register.

"The cranes and derricks proposed rule comprehensively addresses the hazards associated with the use of cranes and derricks in construction, including tower cranes," said Edwin G. Foulke Jr., assistant secretary of labor for OSHA. "This draft rule will both protect construction employees and help prevent crane accidents by updating existing protections and requiring crane operators to be trained in the use of construction cranes."

The cranes and derricks proposed rule would apply to the estimated 96,000 construction cranes in the U.S., including 2,000 tower cranes. The proposed standard addresses key safety issues associated with cranes, including ground conditions, the assembly and disassembly of cranes, the operation of cranes near power lines, the certification and training of crane operators, the use of safety devices and signals, and inspections of cranes. It significantly updates existing tower crane requirements and more comprehensively addresses tower crane safety, with respect both to erecting and dismantling, and to crane operations.

The proposed standard would establish four options for the qualification or certification of crane operators: (1) certification through an accredited third-party testing organization, (2) qualification through an audited employer testing program, (3) qualification issued by the U.S. military and (4) qualification by a state or local licensing authority.

This proposed rule was developed through negotiated rulemaking by the Cranes and Derricks Advisory Committee (C-DAC). The federal Advisory Committee on Construction Safety and Health subsequently recommended that OSHA use that document for developing its proposed rule. Since then and as required by law, OSHA has conducted a regulatory flexibility analysis, small business review and paperwork burden analysis of the proposed rule. In addition, OSHA was required to write a preamble to the regulatory proposal that explains in detail the purpose and application of the proposed standard. That preamble is almost 1,000 pages. The members of C-DAC were sent an advance copy for review as part of their role in the negotiated rulemaking.

OSHA has improved workplace safety and health over the past 37 years. This success is reflected in the latest data showing the lowest national fatality and injury and illness incidence rate that the Bureau of Labor Statistics has ever recorded.

Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, employers are responsible for providing a safe and healthy workplace for their employees. OSHA's role is to promote the safety and health of America's working men and women by setting and enforcing standards; providing training, outreach and education; establishing partnerships; and encouraging continual process improvement in workplace safety and health. For more information, visit www.osha.gov.

SOURCE U.S. Department of Labor

Do Not Lie To The Authorities

Tell The Truth!

It doesn't pay to lie to authorities! The article below from the New York Times, written by Anahad O'Connor clearly reports a Criminal Act by the owner of a construction company where a worker was killed while not being properly secured to prevent his falling from a scaffold in Harlem.

The actions after the incident proved to be a lie to authorities, then a willful act of forging of a worker's identity that identified the fallen worker as a licensed rigger.

There is just plain NO SENSE, especially no Horse Sense for this type thing to happen. I don't know what the maximum charges would be in this case, but it should include putting this company totally out of business and some prison time for this willful cause of a fatality.

2 Arrested After Death at Work Site in Harlem

Malik Hussain was quick to assign blame on Thursday when one of his construction workers, Miguel Rodriguez, fell to his death from a scaffold at a six-story building in Harlem.

Related

In Harlem, Worker Falls Three Floors to His Death (September 12, 2008)

Mr. Hussain, 26, told investigators that Mr. Rodriguez, 38, who was patching the building’s facade, broke at least two safety regulations — and he insisted that a licensed foreman had been present at the site, overseeing the work the entire time.

But on Friday, city investigators turned the tables on Mr. Hussain. They charged that immediately after the accident, Mr. Hussain lied to the authorities when he said that a certified foreman had been present. They said that he even went as far as to force an unlicensed employee to pose as one.

Mr. Hussain and the uncertified employee, Jinal Patel, were arrested on Friday and charged with impersonation in the second degree, a misdemeanor that carries up to one year of jail time, the city’s Department of Investigation said.

As a result of the arrests, the authorities said, the Buildings Department is suspending work at 28 other sites across the city where Mr. Hussain’s company, Classic Painting and Restoration of Brooklyn, was working.

“This supervisor showed absolutely no regard for the safety of his workers or the public,” said Robert LiMandri, the commissioner-designate of the Buildings Department. “This tragedy could have been prevented if basic safety regulations were followed.”

According to investigators and witnesses at the scene, Mr. Rodriguez, a husband and father of two who immigrated from Ecuador, was doing patch-up and cement work on the building at 226 West 111 Street when the accident occurred shortly before 2 p.m.

Mr. Rodriguez was on a scaffold between the fifth and sixth floors, the police said, when another worker on the scaffold stepped off and entered the building. Moments later, Mr. Rodriguez, who was wearing a harness that investigators said was not properly attached to the building, plummeted to his death. It was unclear whether Mr. Rodriguez simply fell from the platform or the platform had collapsed, officials said.

In an interview shortly after the accident, Mr. Hussain said that Mr. Rodriguez was at fault for trying to lower the scaffold without his partner.

“He tried to lower the scaffolding by himself,” he said. “It’s against the rules. You have to have two guys at a time.”

When asked whether he had informed Mr. Rodriguez of that regulation, Mr. Hussain said only: “He knows everything. He was working for a long time.”

The names of lawyers for Mr. Hussain and Mr. Patel could not be immediately obtained on Friday night.

According to building codes, the scaffold was required to be set up by a licensed rigger, and a person with certification who could ensure that the scaffold was being operated properly was supposed to be present at the site.

But according to the Department of Investigation, when investigators asked to speak with that person, Mr. Hussain lied to them. They said Mr. Hussain told Mr. Patel to impersonate a rigging foreman, and — days earlier — gave him a government-issued foreman’s identification card to pass off as his own if questioned by inspectors. The card apparently belonged to another employee of Mr. Hussain’s company, the authorities said.

Four More Killed In A Ditch

Another Report of a Collapsed Ditch

In the article below, from Action Three News, an incident in Verdet, NE, it is announced that four more workers were killed in an unprotected ditch. It seems as one of the workers was pinned by dirt caving in on him while in the trench, then three more jumped in to save the first one and they all perished.

Well, if OSHA holds true to many other fatalities, especially in trench collapsed the company will only be fined $12,000 for all four fatalities.

The only way to stop these trench wall collapsing is to make the fines of a sufficient amount to "Get the Contractor's Attention." As in a similar incident in Mississippi, there were three workers killed and they only received a $12,000 fine.

Other than their insurance rates going up, there is a mere "pat on the hand" of these contractors, not even a "slap on the hands!" This totally does not make Horse Sense to give these low, low fines, but it does show Donkey Sense!


Accident Kills Four Construction Workers

Posted: Sep 12, 2008 03:40 PM CDT

Verdel, NE - Knox County officials say four men have died in a highway construction accident outside the town of Verdel. Verdel is near the border of South Dakota, in northeast Nebraska.

Three of the construction workers died trying to save a fourth man who fell into a collapsing trench. The victims were working on the drainage trench on Friday morning when
a part of it collapsed.

Investigators believe 24-year-old Travis Lunn of O'Neill fell into the collapsing trench. The three others tried to rescue him and also became trapped in the dirt.

The other three men who died are 35-year-old David Peterson of O'Neill, 61-year-old Gary Forsch of Spencer and 43-year-old Brad Kelly of Lynch.

The collapse was reported around 9:15 on Friday morning along state Highway 12 near Verdel.

An investigator with the Occupational Safety and Health Administatation is on the scene, trying to find out what went wrong.

Posted by Mark Barmann, mbarmann@action3news.com

Why Contest a Small Citation and Fines?

Why Would a Company Contest Citations and Fines for a Death of a Worker?

The article below from KFYR-TV in North Dakota caught my eye and roused my ire as to why this citation was contested.

It amazes me to read items about companies who want to contest citations and minimal fines resulting from the death of a worker. The only thing I could even fathom would be to try to keep their insurance rates and records cleared.

If a worker is killed and if the company has failed to properly provide a safe working area, has trained the worker properly to be aware of the dangers of doing whatever it was when the incident occurred, and if it could be proven that the worker was "clowning around," under the influence of drugs or alcohol or some other totally ignoring safety rules, then the company should be cited and fined.

It continues to remind me how low the imposed fines are issued by OSHA for the death of a worker on a job site. Is the life and safety of any worker's value less than a measley $17,500? It seems like a pittance to me.

Company Contesting Citations, Fines in Oil Rig Accident

9/11/2008

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration says a company is contesting fines and citations issued in an oil rig accident that killed a Montana man. Mountrail County authorities say 21-year-old Nathaniel Zinn, of Chinook, Montana, died in May, at a rig site about 11 miles south of Stanley. The rig was owned by Cyclone Drilling of Gillette, Wyoming. Mike Maslowski is an assistant area director for OSHA in Bismarck. He says OSHA issued six "serious" safety citations and fines totaling $17,500 to the company. He says the company is contesting the citations and fines.

Fines For Pike Electric

OSHA Wants $63K Fine For Pike Electric

This article appeared in the Mobile Press Register on Saturday, September 6, 2008 and was written by Jeff Amy, Business Reporter.

Also, this ties to a post I made on May 6, 2008 on this incident.

It amuses me that with repeated trench colapses maiming and killing workers in Mississippi and Alabama, as well as all over the country a little crying to OSHA and they will reduce fines for deaths or injuries from up in the hundreds of thousands down to $12,000. Not really a slap on the wrist! These kind of fines WILL NOT deter these companies from taking the same short cuts again and possibly killing more workers.

Worker near USA was badly injured in May when trench collapsed onto him.

Federal workplace safety officials have proposed a $63,000 fine against Pike Electric, Inc. after a trench collapsed and severely injured a worker earlier this year.

The company, which builds and maintains power lines, was doing work near the corner of Old Shell and Hillcrest roads, near the University of South Alabama, when the cave-in happened May 6, according to federal records

A statement from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration said that the walls of the trench were "near vertical." Spokesman Michael Wald said the worker was hospitalized after the collapse, although he was unable to say whether the worker was permanently impaired.

Pike's Michael Heath declined to comment Friday.

Federal safety rules call for trenches to be sloped or held up by supporting structure, such as a metal frame, to keep workers from being crushed by collapsing dirt.

"Pike Electric has lots of experience in trenching, but the company's managent still failed to take basic preventative measures that could have saved this employee from harm." Clyde Payne, interim director of OSHA's Mobile office, said in a statement.

The company was fined over two separate infractions -- $56,000 for a willful rule violation for failing to protect workers in the trench, and $7,000 for piling excavated dirt too close to the side of the trench.

Based in Mount Airy, N.C., Pike Electric (NYSE:PEC) commonly does work for Alabama Power Co. and other electric utilities throughout the South and Midwest. In its most recent budget year, it reported profits of $20.2 million on revenues of $552 million.

The company has 15 days to appeal the violations and fine to the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission, or it can request for an informal settlement with the head of the Mobile OSHA office.

Fines are commonly reduced through such appeals and settlements. For Example, in the past five years, OSHA has proposed $246,680 in fines against Pike throughout the nation, according to the agency's online record of completed cases, but after appeals and settlements, the company has paid only $70, 430.50.

For example, the Mobile office initially proposed a $77,000 fine for failing to cut off power to a line safely after lineman Ronnie Adams died by electrocution while working in Flomaton on July 12, 2005, after Hurricane Dennis. A resident's generator was backfeeding power into a line believed to be dead, a possibility that Alabama Power had warned Pike about, according to documents. Pike contested the fine, saying in part that Adams' death was his own fault because he was wearing leather and not rubber gloves. The latter would have insulated him from electrocution.

An administrative law judge reduced the amount to $12,000 in 2007, saying the company's conduct was not a willful violation, which carries a higher fine.

Fatality In New York

Worker Fell 400 Feet

The article below from The New York Times, written by Ken Belson and William K Rashbaum and titled this report as "Worker Is Killed in City's Latest Crane Accident."

I think that this would be more appropriately posted as "Rigger Fell to His Death When He Was Not Properly Anchored."

In the report, the deceased worker had been working on lowering the tower crane, but it appears that the CAUSE for his fall was his failure to attach his lanyard to a point that would support 5,000 pounds of force. Also, his fellow workers in his immediate work area should have been aware of his failure to be properly anchored. This is a shared responsibily of all workers to be aware of not only their own safety practices, but of their coworkers also.

In reading the article and being familiar with "tight working situations," it seems like that the worker was required to move beyond the length of his lanyard, took it loose, but failed to secure a second lanyard before releasing the first one. This type situation can and will contribute to a fatality or serious injury of the person that was not properly secured.

It is so tragic for any fatality on a project anywhere and any time, but when they can be so easily prevented by the proper use of safety equipment. My heart goes out to this worker's family as well as his fellow workers on that site.

Worker Is Killed in City’s Latest Crane Accident

By KEN BELSON and WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM

Published: September 4, 2008

A construction worker fell about 400 feet to his death on Thursday as he and others worked to lower a tower crane at a building site on the West Side of Manhattan. It was the latest in a series of high-rise accidents in recent months — and the third fatal accident involving cranes — that are certain to bring renewed scrutiny to the Bloomberg administration.

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Ruth Fremson/The New York Times

The 1,350-unit residential building with 58-story towers where a crane rigger fell to his death on West 42nd Street in Manhattan.

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Ruth Fremson/The New York Times

Construction workers after the accident.

The accident occurred about 9:30 a.m. as a team of seven men worked to lower part of a tower crane that had been used to erect a 58-story tower at 600 West 42nd Street, between 11th and 12th Avenues, where the developer Larry A. Silverstein is building the Silver Towers on the River, a 1,350-unit residential building scheduled to open next year.

The worker, Anthony Esposito, 48, a crane rigger, was on a 20-foot working platform attached to the crane about 40 floors up, said Deputy Chief Anthony DeVita of the Fire Department. The platform apparently tilted, according to one investigator, and Mr. Esposito lost his footing.

Mr. Esposito was wearing a safety harness, but it was not attached to anything, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said.

The authorities are trying to determine whether the platform was properly anchored, the investigator said. It appeared to have been secured at only two points instead of four, the investigator added.

Tony Sclafani, a spokesman for the Buildings Department, said the platform was inspected on Tuesday. But he would not say whether it had been moved or altered since then.

Hours after the accident, a stream of family and friends had gathered at Mr. Esposito’s house in Baldwin, on Long Island.

A family friend who called himself Rocky but would not give his last name said Mr. Esposito had three children — one who just received confirmation, and a 13-year-old daughter and a child in high school.

“He worked for his family first,” Rocky said, adding that Mr. Esposito knew his job was risky. “He caught the train at 5:30 a.m. every morning, he worked Saturdays, holidays, whenever he can for his family.”

Chief DeVita and other city officials said the crane did not appear to have any structural problems.

The operation and inspection of tower cranes have received considerable scrutiny this year after nine people were killed when two of them fell in separate accidents.

The first accident occurred in March on East 51st Street, and left seven people dead. In that case, nylon straps snapped as they were being used to help “jump” the crane — in that case, raising it. The crane in Thursday’s accident was also being jumped, although in this case it was being dismantled, or lowered — an equally perilous operation.

The March collapse prompted the Buildings Department to issue tougher safety protocols for jumping cranes, and this was the first fatal accident to occur during a jump since.

Those protocols required that a Buildings Department inspector be present when a crane is jumped.

That provision was eliminated when the department issued a later set of protocols just two days before a second fatal crane accident in May.

That accident, on East 91st Street, did not involve a crane jump and left two workers dead.

There was no inspector at the scene on Thursday, Mr. Sclafani said.

In issuing the protocols in May, the department said it stopped requiring an inspector because a review of crane jumps found it unnecessary.

As friends of the Esposito family gathered in Baldwin, the New York City Council voted unanimously to adopt a series of crane safety measures, many of which echoed the new protocols.

The accident happened early in the workday at the gleaming glass towers overlooking the Hudson River, as cars and tourist buses streamed past on the West Side Highway.

Several construction workers, visibly shaken, waved off reporters as they left the building and walked to their cars.

Keith Gray, 44, the foreman of the sheet metal workers at the site, said he saw Mr. Esposito half-covered with an orange tarp as emergency workers worked on him. Mr. Gray, who works for Aabco Sheet Metal, said Mr. Esposito was wearing a yellow body harness that stretched from his thigh area up to and around his shoulders.

“The guy had a harness on when he was on the ground,” Mr. Gray said, “but I heard he was not attached — he was not hooked off. If he was hooked off, we have supports along the building and he’d have been attached to that, and then if he fell he’d a been dangling in the air.”

One investigator involved in the inquiry said Mr. Esposito had unhooked the harness shortly before he fell.

Another investigator said federal safety officials were looking into whether the platform was sufficiently secured and whether one of the safety railings on the back side of it — where Mr. Esposito apparently fell — had been removed.

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Dan Alcade/The New York Times

The scene of the fall Thursday. The 9:30 a.m. accident took the life of a father of three children.

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Experts said jumping a tower crane was one of the most dangerous phases in the use of the giant machines.

Mr. Sclafani said the department had issued a stop-work order on the site, which includes two 58-story towers. Mr. Esposito fell from the northwest corner of the complex. Work began in October 2007, and the towers have been built to their full height.

Richard Mendelson, the area director for the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration who will supervise the agency’s investigation, said it was too soon to draw conclusions about what led to Mr. Esposito’s death.

In the investigation, OSHA and the Buildings Department are being joined by prosecutors from the rackets bureau in the office of the Manhattan district attorney, Robert M. Morgenthau, which has looked into the two earlier fatal tower crane accidents, and the city’s Department of Investigation.

As Chief DeVita briefed reporters about two hours after the accident on Thursday, a large black section of the crane was being lowered to the ground behind him, with nylon straps clearly visible securing a section of the crane’s frame.

The bills that the City Council approved late Thursday would, among other things, require that general contractors hold safety coordination meetings with engineers, riggers and safety managers before erecting or dismantling a crane, and that crane workers take a 30-hour training course. The law allowed stop-work orders to be imposed faster.

“We’re not going to tolerate sloppiness that leads to injury and death,” Mayor Bloomberg said.

The general contractor at the site of Thursday’s accident was Gotham Construction, and the concrete subcontractor was DiFama Concrete, according to city records. Mr. Esposito worked for DFC Structures, an affiliate of DiFama, according to a spokesman for the company.

A worker for DiFama died in January when he fell 42 stories from the top of Trump SoHo, a condominium hotel under construction at Varick and Spring Streets in Manhattan.

DiFama has a history of safety violations at projects in Manhattan and has been fined tens of thousands of dollars in penalties, according to federal records.

In November 2004, another DiFama employee died when he fell 60 feet from a platform on the mast of a construction crane at what is now the Lumiere, a seven-story condominium on 53rd Street, west of Eighth Avenue.

A woman who answered the phone at the company on Thursday said it would have no comment.

Mr. Morgenthau’s rackets bureau and the city’s Department of Investigation are conducting a broad criminal investigation into corruption in the Buildings Department’s cranes and derricks division, which has already resulted in the arrests of an inspector and the unit’s acting chief inspector. The office of a crane company, Nu-Way Crane Services, were searched as part of the investigation and more charges are expected, people briefed on the inquiry have said.

Log Truck Incident

Be Aware of your Sourroundings

The photos posted here of an incident that shows the need for Horse Sense in the logging industry as well as any construction project.

The driver was attempting to bind his load down for safe transport when he overpowered his toss of the binding chain over his load of logs.

When he was attempting to throw the chain over the logs the chain's hook attached itself to the 7.2 kv primary electric distribution line. He said that his tires began to "fry" within seconds. He could have easily been fried himself.

There were several unsafe issues where this driver should have used Horse Sense that would have prevented the possible danger of his fatality as well as saving his truck and load.

One was to be aware of the dangers in the immediate area of unsafe conditions or perils. The driver should have moved his rig to an area away from overhead power lines before securing his load.

Another was that the driver could have been electrocuted had he been in contact with the other end of the chain after it made contact with the power line.

This incident simply shows the need to be aware of your souroundings before performing work operations on your jobsite