Sunday, August 2, 2015

Indictments in construction workers' deaths

From the Daily News:

Two construction managers are facing homicide charges in the death of a Queens hardhat who was crushed by a collapsing wall at a Meatpacking District work site, the Daily News has learned.

Wilmer Cuevas, 49, and Alfonso Prestia, 55, have been indicted for allegedly refusing to shut down the Ninth Ave. site April 6 after an engineer assigned to observe the work warned them it was too dangerous, police sources said.

The engineer’s fears were realized just moments later when a portion of a wall collapsed onto a pit 20 feet below street level — killing 22-year-old Carlos Moncayo.

“There was a life that was lost,” Moncayo’s brother-in-law Tobias Espejo, 35, told The News. “If this was an accident and they didn’t take responsibility, they are responsible.”

Cuevas, of Sky Materials Corp., and Prestia, of Hartco Consultants Corp., have been indicted on charges of criminally negligent homicide, manslaughter and reckless endangerment, sources said.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Latino lives are worth less than Chinese "coolies".
That's the way a lot of these construction companies look at it.

Jackson Heights Johnny said...

No one, regardless of race or nationality, should lose their life due to NEGLIGENCE....

When the negligence is proven to be deliberate, in IMHO, that equals criminality, and must be punished in EVERY instance....

Anonymous said...

Henry and Tommy Huang should have been charged with the death of the young fellow that died on their site on Queens Blvd. due to their gross negligence. The DOB also has no accountability for the loss of lives due to their blatant lack of oversight.