After a number of high-profile construction incidents in the past few years, the Buildings Department announced last month they would introduce stricter safety measures for high-rise construction. Here are some of those incidents:
There are terrible construction incidents at sites of all sizes, union or non-union. Last Wednesday, a worker died while digging a foundation in East New York (a neighboring wall collapsed on him). And a 2006 study showed non-union workers are at greatest risk for accidents.

Trump Soho collapse January 14, 2008: At the Trump Soho, concrete molds break, causing a construction worker to fall 42 stories to his death. The site had many building violations and others suggested the construction work was sub-standard. (Photograph by Tien Mao)





*After a number of high-profile construction incidents in the past few years, the Buildings Department announced last month they would introduce stricter safety measures for high-rise construction*
And when will this take effect? 2015?
How many of these were non union jobs?
Don't forget the S.H.Green company on East 17th street where
many Mexican workers fell to their death on Union Square I remember the year was 2001.
The scaffold the workers were on were illegal and
of course lacking proper permits.
We never heard what
ever happened there after a few days in the press.
S.H.Green is related to Mark Green the so called
wise guys on NY1 TV show.
Perhaps this is why the story was sort of buried.
...or the collapse of the construction elevator at the Conde Nast building in 1998 that killed a woman in an adjacent building
Good job on this, Jen and Co. My friends, the union/non-union thing is a smokescreen. The issue is these buildings are going up too damn fast. It is imperative that these buildings get built and sold before the times change... and if you scan up a couple of stories (on the blog, not the building), you'll see it's starting.
Millions of dollars will be spent on (real ugly) buildings that will sit half-occupied for a decade. To avoid that, corners will be cut. Safety procedures and common sense will be raced by. It has to be that way. From a dollar and cents standpoint, it's a no brainer.
It's just that we'll all have to be wearing lead hardhats for a while.