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| © Brendan McDermid/Reuters |
The crane crashed into a row of parked cars when it capsized onto Worth St. near Church St. about 8:30 a.m. as heavy snow fell onto the city and winds hit 20 mph.
The lone fatality, identified by police as David Wichs, who lives on the Upper West Side, died at the scene, Mayor de Blasio said.
"He was an angel, an absolute angel," said a man leaving Wich's apartment building on W. 81st St.
"He was a wonderful, wonderful person. He was the best, the absolute best, and that's what makes this tragedy that much greater," said the man, who identified himself as the family's rabbi.
Wich, born in Prague, was a Harvard-educated immigrant with a degree in mathematics. He had been working at a trading firm, Tower Research Capital.
Of the wounded, Dawn Kojima, 45, and Thomas O'Brien, 73, suffered the most serious injuries but were not critically hurt, cops said.
Law enforcement sources said that O'Brien had just dropped off his daughter for an appointment and was in his parked car waiting for her to return.
Wichs was near O'Briend's car when the crane began its violent downward arc -- and dashed the unsuspecting man to the ground.
It also crushed much of O'Brien's vehicle, but the 73-year-old miraculously survived with only a head laceration.
He's clearly visible through the shattered sun roof as construction workers rush to his aid, the video showed.
Kojima told the Daily News she was hit by falling debris on the head and the leg. The gash on her head required nine staples to close.
The 45-year-old was on Worth St. grabbing a cup of coffee before going to her job at The Gap, when a sudden noise made her look up, she said.
"I totally got hit by something, it's hard to describe, it was really painful," she told The News.
Kojima, O'Brien and a third pedestrian with minor injuries were brought to area hospitals.
A fourth injury was reported by a firefighter responding to the scene, but officials said it was also minor.
Mayor de Blasio rushed to the scene to assess the damage, setting up a makeshift press office inside the headquarters of the Detectives' Endowment Association on Worth St.
The crane tumbled out of control as workers tried to move the heavy machinery into a secure position because winds topped 20 mph, he said.
"This incident occurred literally as they were lowering the crane to secure it," de Blasio said.
An inspector with the Department of Buildings had been on the site Thursday because workers were extending the crane -- which has a boom length of 565 feet, the mayor told reporters.
DOB reviewed the work and approved it, he said. The crane was installed at 60 Hudson St. on Jan. 30.
"No work was done this morning because the crew made the decision to bring the crane down to the secure position," the mayor said.
The horrible accident could have been even more tragic, he added.
"The crew was directing people away from Worth St. as the crane was being lowered," the mayor said.
"Just before the accident happened, the crew was making sure people weren't in the way," he said.Crazy scene! Crane just collapsed in TriBeCa #nyc pic.twitter.com/uUFjaYIlci— Keith V Smith (@KVSaint) February 5, 2016
The crane smashed into cars and pavement right past the Sergeant’s Benevolent Association office.
Two workers at the union office ran out and tried to free the trapped O'Brien from the mangled car.
They saw Wichs' battered body under the crane, the union head said.
“He looked like a maintenance worker,” said SBA President Edward Mullins.
"He was dressed in a maintenance uniform. He didn’t look like a construction worker. We placed a blanket over him.”
On Thursday, the crane was loading heavy air conditioning equipment to the roof of the construction site, said Mullins.
“I saw it yesterday,” Mullins said. “I thought to myself if this comes down its going to take out our building.”
Multiple ambulances responded to the scene.
Firefighters were also investigating a report that a wrecking ball attached to the crane snapped off the structure and fell through the roof of a building, officials said.
Jesse Natale, a 26-year-old civil engineer from Westfield, N.J., said he was waiting at a light at Worth St. and Church St. when the crane plummeted.
“If I caught that light, I’d be dead probably,” he told the Daily News. “It looked like an avalanche — or that the roof was caving in from the snow”
The massive red crane — which has “Bay Crane” printed on its side — hit a building and leaned on some power lines as it fell, said witness Sean Campbell.
The crane operator, identified by sources as Kevin Reilly, 56, was cooperating with officials investigating the cause of the crash.
He blew .000 on a Breathalyzer test, sources said.
Reilly was arrested three times in the 1980s for driving while under the influence but has had a clean record since then, sources said.
A man who answered the phone at Bay Crane refused to comment and said they are not releasing any information at this time. He would not say if the crane was in operation at the time of the collapse.
Bay Crane, a 75-year-old Long Island City-based company, bills itself as “New York’s leader in crane rental and specialized transportation solutions” on its website.
Blair Stelle, 29, was on her way to work when she saw the crane on the ground.
“I couldn’t even see all the way to the other end,” she said about the downed crane. “Everyone was in shock. Even the police that were here were totally shocked.”
The crane has been working in the area for about a week, Stelle said.
“I can’t believe it,” she said. “I remember looking up at it last night and said to myself, ‘This is a huge crane.’”
Bob Ganley, who works for the Sergeants' Benevolent Association, ran outside after the massive "boom" of the crane collapse shook the neighborhood.
He said he immediately saw O'Brien and ran to help.
“He was conscious. He was more in a state of shock and afraid. We and a bunch of construction guys that were there were trying to get him out. Whoever was available…police…fire…construction people… helped out. It was an all hands on deck to save this guy," he said.
Rescuers used a pry bar to open the door and free the man, Ganley said.
An FDNY paramedic and a firefighter managed to extract him safely, sources said.
“It’s a miracle he survived. My car was hit too, it was almost split in half," the union worker said.
At least six parked cars were hit by the crane. Witnesses also reported a strong odor of gas.
Con Edison crews were called in to investigate and began clearing the immediate area of pedestrians.
"We’re aware of the odors, we are working with the FDNY to excavate and cut a low pressure gas main at West Broadway and Church St.," said Mike Clendenin, a spokesman for Con Edison.
Crews were looking for any possible damage in surrounding buildings.
A 6-inch gas main that feeds the neighborhood was cut as a precaution, Clendenin said.
Express buses 27 and 28 buses to Brooklyn and northbound Staten Island express buses are detoured due to the collapse. The 1 train wil bypass Franklin and Chambers streets.
Officials closed a number of streets in the area: Worth St. between West Broadway and Hudson St.; southbound West Broadway from Canal St. to the Battery; and northbound West Broadway from Greenwich St. to the Battery.
Mayor de Blasio said the street closures would likely last several days.
"This is a very, very sad incident, we lost a life. But if you go out into the street as I did and see what happened here, thank God it was not worse," the mayor said.
Manhattan is no stranger to devastating crane collapses. In November, the steel arm of a balky mini-crane dropped onto a construction safety coordinator on E. 44th St. near Second Ave. in Midtown.
The worker, Trevor Loftus, was pinned between the boom crane and his flatbed truck.
In 2008, a crane owned by so-called “Crane king” James Lomma plunged onto a construction site on East 91st St., taking the lives of operator Donald Leo and construction worker Ramadan Kurtaj. Their families were awarded $48 million each in compensatory and punitive damages after an 11 month trial that resulted, eight years later, in Lomma declaring bankruptcy.
Bay Crane has a clean safety record, with one exception: On the evening of March 28, 2010, one of their cranes - a 280-foot rig - smashed into an office building after hours because a hydraulic pump in the rig failed.
The city Buildings Department initially blamed the crane operator, Chris Cosban, claiming he failed to properly secure the rig at the end of the work day, which resulted in the rig collapsing.
Ultimately, however, investigators learned the crane itself was faulty and that its owners failed to properly inspect it.
The U.S. Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) cited Bay Crane for not complying with manufacturer’s specifications and limitations for a Liebherty LTM 1500 mobile hydraulic crane relating to “ending of crane operation overnight crane storage with boom elevated and extended.”
Bay Crane was initially fined $2,500, but settled with OSHA and paid no fine after OSHA cited Skylift Contracting Corp. of Brooklyn for not instructing workers to recognize unsafe conditions.
Skylift was fined $5,000, settled for $3,875.
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