Construction company owner charged with manslaughter

From CBS:

The owner of a Brooklyn construction company has been charged with manslaughter following a wall collapse that left one worker dead and two others seriously injured.

Michael Weiss, 47, of Williamsburg, owns RSBY NY Builders Inc. and Park Ave Builders Inc., both in Bedford-Stuyvesant.

He faces 14 counts, including second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide.

The charges stem from a Sept. 3, 2015 incident at a construction site on Myrtle Avenue in Bed-Stuy.

Workers were replacing a single-story building with a five-story one, when Weiss ordered them to excavate an area that was not approved by the Department of Buildings, Acting Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzale alleged Wednesday.

An adjacent wall eventually collapsed, crushing 18-year-old Fernando Vanegaz to death and seriously hurting two other workers.

Man dies in wall collapse

From NBC:

A 19-year-old man died in a wall collapse at a Brooklyn construction site Thursday morning, police say.

Emergency officers were called to the site, a future apartment building, on Myrtle Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant at about 11:30 a.m. when a cinder block wall collapsed, trapping three people, police said.

"They were underpinning the foundation of a wall and they didn't have it supported properly and the bottom of the wall came out and tumbled on top of them," FDNY chief John Rozas said.
The 19-year-old man was taken to Brooklyn Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The other two men were taken to Kings County Hospital in stable condition.

This happened just after the DOB announced it was cracking down on bad contractors.

Maspeth & Arverne homeowners may be in similar predicament

From the Queens Chronicle:

The homeowners who were forced out of their Maspeth house by a collapsing basement wall on Friday think the damage could be tied to a sinkhole in the street on 58th Road, but city agencies say the family is on its own for effecting repairs and making the building safe again.

Sean and Danielle Maher have owned 69-11 58 Road for just over three years. Danielle Maher, her toddler daughter and four tenants were forced to flee the building Friday afternoon as the eastern wall to their basement first cracked then collapsed.

Inspectors with the Department of Buildings on Friday afternoon posted evacuation orders on the Mahers’ home and one located across a small walkway at 69-13.

In television interviews this past weekend the Mahers suggested that the troubles could be linked to a large sinkhole in the middle of the street on 58th Road that the city repaired earlier this year.
Danielle Maher in published reports said she stepped in the snow-covered hole this past winter as she carried her daughter.

The hole, which is in front of the house at 69-09 — connected to the Mahers’ home — is almost perfectly round and more than two feet in diameter. It still goes down about three to four inches at its deepest point.

A longtime resident of the block said sinkholes have existed there for some time, including the one in the street in front of 69-09, and been the subject of multiple calls to 311.

An official DEP statement on Monday said only that personnel inspected a sewer line that runs under the street adjacent to the property and that the line was found to be intact and functioning properly.

I sent this story to Steve Major, who alerted the media to the sinkholes in Arverne after Sandy. His response:

I think the families along the series of sinkholes in Arverne Queens are in about the same boat. The city told them it's their problem to resolve as well despite being result of either 1) city water main breaks, or 2) a historic drainage canal not properly backfilled before the land was sold to developers by the city, IMO. No matter the cause, it is certainly not a subsurface condition the homeowners ever knew about and therefore the burden cannot be placed on them. The city is bullying people by not even investigating the cause(s). We the people need to organize everyone in similar situations. This is one of the top projects on the list of The Real Volunteers (TRV) philanthropy programs to help investigate, fix and prove who should be responsible since no one else has helped them... "The Beach 68th St, Averne, NY Sandy Sink Holes Homeowner Advocacy Program - City officials have told the residents on these blocks that each of the whole series of a dozen sinkholes in their yards and under their homes is each individual homeowner’s financial responsibility to repair. These were subsurface conditions (I believe an old municipal drainage canal not properly filled) that the residents could’ve never even known existed beneath their homes. We will contract a civil engineering firm to perform subsurface ultrasounds, exploratory excavations, etc. in order to prove the nature of the cause of the sinkholes and be prepared to testify as to those findings to force the repairs."

Sinkhole may be cause for wall collapse

From NBC:

A Queens family thinks a nearby sinkhole on the street is the reason a giant hole opened up under their home, forcing them out. But they say the city has been no help in getting the sinkhole fixed. John Chandler reports.

Cars fall victim to Brooklyn mudslide

From NBC:

Several cars were buried in debris after a garage wall collapsed in Brooklyn Friday morning, authorities say.

No one was injured when the 20 foot-by-20 foot wall fell in Crown Heights around 7 a.m. Four cars were flattened underneath collapse.

NYPD deployed K9 units to scour the rubble on Crown Street to make sure no one was trapped underneath, and checked neighbors' security camera footage as well.

The collapse was likely caused by this week's heavy downpours, which possibly made the supported retaining wall even weaker, according to fire officials.

Forensic engineers are trying to determine the integrity of the structure. It's not clear what caused the wall to fall.

Heavy rain causes wall collapse

From Eyewitness News:

Dozens of people had to be evacuated Saturday morning when a retaining wall collapsed in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan.

The residents were evacuated from an apartment building on Cabrini Avenue, after the collapse at a building behind it on Pinehurst Avenue.

The building manager says a fire escape was ripped off a wall of the apartment building.

About 100 residents were displaced by the 4 a.m. collapse, which affected 35 apartments in all that face the rear courtyard.

It is still unclear when they will be allowed back into their building.

Facade collapse near Queens Center Mall

From Eyewitness News:

A 22-year-old man was taken to Elmhurst hospital after façade collapse at the GameStop he worked at in Queens.

The incident took place on the 92nd street side of a building across from the Queens Center Mall.

Authorities say the victim worker was transported to the hospital with a serious head injury, but was expected to survive.

Wall collapse seriously injures boy

From CBS 2:

Two young boys were rushed to the hospital Friday night after being injured, one of them critically, in a Brooklyn wall collapse.

A brick and cinder block retaining wall fell to the ground in Bushwick after the young boys tried to go over the wall in pursuit of their basketball, witnesses said.

Despite being injured, Nathyiz Figueroa, 10, was able to free himself. However, his cousin, 11-year-old William Arango, was crushed and left in critical condition.

Nathyiz has since been released from Elmhurst hospital.

The wall was separating a vacant construction site next door. Department of Buildings inspectors said vibration from the project likely weakened the wall, causing it to collapse with no warning.

I guess they are not brother and sister as the video proclaims.