Families of UES Crane Collapse Victims Sue

Relatives of Ramadan Kurtaj and Donald Leo, who were killed when a crane collapsed at an Upper East Side construction site last May, announced they are suing various entities for $100 million. They say that the city was negligent in overseeing crane and construction operations and point to the crane company's greed—apparently a Chinese company hired to fix the crane's turntable (which was damaged) "doubted its ability to properly perform the welding necessary to fix the machinery," yet the crane company allowed it to fix the crane, which ultimately failed, according to the NY Times. A lawyer for Kurtaj's family said, "This was something that was avoidable." The Manhattan DA's office is investigating the collapse; the DA's office ending up charging the crane rigger in the 2008 Midtown crane collapse.