Midtown Construction Materials Hit Pedestrian

Egads - a piece of plywood from a Midtown construction site hit a person on the sidewalk. A crane was lifting the plywood 30 stories above the street, but somehow, many of the boards fell, "scattering 100 feet" and causing the intersection at 6th Avenue and 39th Street to be closed, according to the NY Times. One witness called the incident, "helter-skelter. It was mayhem." The construction is for a new Marriott, and the boards were 8' by 4', about 1/4" thick. Luckily, the man who was injured was conscious, though in shock. Gothamist has never been good at physics, but having anything drop from 30 stories high does not seem very good, especially during the holiday shopping season, when tons of New Yorkers and tourists flood our Midtown streets.