IT WILL BE DAYS BEFORE ANY DEFINITIVE EXPLANATIONS will be offered about this morning’s crane collapse in New York City.

Currently, rescue efforts are still in full effort with hundreds of emergency personnel searching for victims.

Search dog works the rubble at the
base of the collapsed crane.  (NYT photo)

A late story in  the New York Times has a description of what happened just before 8 am:

Witnesses said the horizontal arm of the crane began to circle and then snapped off, propelling the cab and the upper portion of the arm onto a white-brick residential building across the street.

The cab smashed into the top floor of the building, demolishing a portion of a 22nd-story penthouse, then plunged down the north facade, knocking off balconies and leaving a trail of pockmarks down to a Duane Reade drug store on the street level.

It was reported elsewhere that two city sewer workers were directly underneath the falling crane and were struck by it.

NY Times

The Times says further:

The accident occurred just two months after a tower crane collapsed on East 51st Street between Second and First Avenues, killing seven people and prompting an extensive review of the safety of cranes in the city.

Just this week, city officials said they would no longer require inspectors to be on hand at construction sites when a crane is erected or made taller, ending a policy put in place after the Midtown accident. The Buildings Department said on Wednesday that it would switch to a system of spot checks and “safety meetings” where workers would be briefed on proper procedures.

Read the complete Times article HERE.

The AP has this video update:

Any further updates will be posted later tonight after any confirmed reports are issued.

NY Times

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