Saturday, May 4, 2019

Drastic undercounting of construction site fatalities during city's hyperdevelopment last year






















THE CITY


A least a dozen construction workers died on the job in New York City last year — but building owners and contractors reported only a single fatality, THE CITY has learned.

A 2017 city law requires building owners or contractors to report all deaths and injuries on their construction sites to the Department of Buildings.

But they’ve fallen far short – without facing any penalty, so far.

The one reported death was that of Over Paredes in November, which was filed by the general contractor at 859 Myrtle Ave. in Brooklyn, according to DOB records.

Worker deaths that went unreported include some that made headlines: Ju Cong Wu, who fell nine stories down an elevator shaft during a hotel project in Manhattan, and Luis Almonte, who was crushed under a brick wall at a Sunset Park worksite.

The DOB has not yet cited any company for failing to report.

The department will begin issuing $2,500 initial violations to building owners who do not report deaths or injuries beginning June 1, agency spokesperson Joseph Soldevere said after THE CITY inquired about enforcement.

“Developers need to be aware that we will be holding them to their obligations under the law and taking all appropriate enforcement actions if they fail to meet those obligations,” he said in a statement.

Owners also could face fines of $1,000 for each day they fail to submit the reports, Soldevere said.

The law went into effect immediately after it was signed in May 2017. Soldevere attributed the delay in enforcement to a slew of new construction safety-related laws — 50 since January 2017 — that has stretched the agency thin.

“We’re implementing dozens of new laws and have had to allocate our resources among many major priorities,” Soldevere wrote.

Private construction is the most lethal industry in New York City, according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, which counted 20 deaths in 2017. The bureau’s 2018 tally is not yet available.


The building in the picture is the site where Gregory Echeverra got killed when a crane collapsed and a counterweight fell on him three weeks ago. It's not known if the developer reported this to the DOB.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

As always these reports raise the question as to whether the work is being done union or non-union. It has been shown that work done by union workers albeit more costly is safer. Construction in New York has now in many circumstances become an open shop and the unsafe working conditions will continue resulting in injuries and fatalities.

JQ LLC said...

Besides the gruesome and preventable death, the other thing disturbing about this is that this happened at 3:15 in the morning. There must be quite an overwhelming demand by our developer overlords to get these towers up stat. Safety and lives be damned.

faster340 said...

I have an osha 30 and 10 hour cert. Stuff like this is why i wouldnt want to be safety supervisor. Owners want you to look the other way in the name of progress.

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