Yesterday, a construction worker fell 50 stories to his death at a building site at 600 West 42nd Street. The victim was identified as Anthony Esposito, 48; authorities say he was wearing a safety harness but it was not attached to anything.
Esposito was a crane rigger and at the time, per the NY Times, he "was on a 20-foot working platform attached to the crane about 40 floors up." The platform, which was between the crane and the building, apparently tilted and Esposito fell. A foreman of sheet metal workers told the Times, "If he was hooked off, we have supports along the building and he’d have been attached to that, and then if he fell he’d a been dangling in the air.”
Workers lamented his death, telling NY1, "It's always safety first, just like we do driving the bus, and as time goes on you find out people get lax on safety and then it's too late when it does happen," and "You gotta be more careful, you gotta be more safe, you gotta watch what you're doing, watch everything, watch people above you."
Construction at the site, which will have a pair of 60-floor apartment buildings developed by Larry Silverstein, was halted. The Post says the site has had 46 violations and 24 complaints since February 2006. Incidentally, Esposito worked for DFC Structures, which is an affiliate of DiFame Concrete; the Daily News points out that DiFam was "fined $44,000 for safety violations" in the January death of a worker who fell 42 floors at the Trump Soho.
