Apr 24, 2008 1:25 pm US/Eastern
Worker Critical After Lincoln Center Scaffold Fall
State Assembly To Hold Thursday Morning Meeting To Address Construction Site Safety
NEW YORK (CBS/AP) ―
A construction worker who fell from a Lincoln Center scaffold was in critical condition Thursday, authorities said.
The worker plunged off a platform in the arts complex Wednesday evening and was taken to St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital, the Fire Department said.
The accident came hours after the city tightened oversight of construction work in the wake of more than a dozen deadly accidents.
The complex -- home to the New York City Ballet, Metropolitan Opera and the Julliard School -- is in the midst of a major overhaul involving several of its buildings on Manhattan's West Side.
"Those of us at Lincoln Center are sending him our thoughts and prayers tonight," spokeswoman Betsy Vorce said Wednesday.
The worker had been trained to work on a scaffold and was wearing a safety harness, and the site's safety experts had held a meeting to discuss the task before it began, said Chris McFadden, a spokesman for Turner Construction Co.
The fall came amid heightened attention to construction accidents, which have killed 13 people in the city this year.
Buildings Commissioner Patricia Lancaster resigned Tuesday after Mayor Michael Bloomberg publicly suggested he wasn't "fully satisfied" with her agency's response to construction dangers.
Acting Commissioner Robert LiMandri on Wednesday ordered engineering experts to analyze concrete pouring at high-rise construction sites, crane operations and excavations.
(© 2010 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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