Another Construction Mishap Downtown

It's not just property values that are collapsing in New York; a construction crane collapsed in Tribeca and injured two workers who were working to repair the crane on the 300-unit residence building. The crane was 200 feet tall and buckled Friday under the strain of an overweighted payload of lumber. Initial reports said that there were no injuries and that several buildings surrounding the 450 Washington St. address had to be evacuated.

A later incident resulted in two construction workers needing to be transported to St. Vincent's Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. One witness described the scene with metal crashing down to the Daily News: "We thought the whole thing was going to come down." Tribeca residents have reason to be jumpy. There was a major construction accident at the Trump Soho site two weeks ago, where one worker was knocked to his death by an overweighted crane. The Buildings Dept. is investigating, but it's raising concerns about the speed of construction in New York's super-heated housing market (which may be on the decline).

The most recent incident occurred as workers were attempting to dismantle the crane that collapsed Friday. They were briefly hospitalized, but in stable condition. People are beginning to be concerned that, with incidents like the Deutsche Bank building fire and the Trump SoHo accident, the pace of construction in NYC has outpaced the city's ability to regulate safety.