Mar 16, 2008 7:00 am US/Eastern
Investigators To Probe Crane Collapse
Officials Checked Crane Just 1 Day Before Accident, Didn't Find Any Problems
Reporting
Jay Dow
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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A crane collapsed in New York City March 15, 2008, killing at least 4 people and injuring at least 10 others. Four buildings were damaged during the collapse.
Jenna Israel
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A massive crane has collapsed at a New York construction site, CBS station WCBS-TV reported Saturday.
CBS
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A massive crane collapses at a New York construction site, trapping several people in a building. Two people are dead and multiple injuries are being reported.
Eric Yang/CBS
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Rescue crews are searching for survivors amid the rubble of a New York City building collapse. Four people are dead, several are injured and several are reported missing.
CBS
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A section of a collapsed crane protrudes from a crushed building on 50th Street near Second Avenue Saturday, March 15, 2008, in New York City. The giant crane toppled over at a construction site and smashed into a block of East Side residential buildings.
Jason DeCrow/AP
Was this crane collapse a freak accident - or could it have been prevented? That is one of the key questions that will certainly frame the investigation into what went wrong Saturday afternoon.
In the coming days the devastation on E. 50th St. will give way to a massive and complex investigation into what caused the crane collapse.
City building officials say inspectors were here Friday. They gave the crane a clean bill of health, and more importantly, a permit for today's operations.
"We were there yesterday, meaning on Friday to inspect the crane and there were no violations written as per that inspection," a NYC Dept. of Buildings official told CBS 2 HD.
About 19 of the high-rise condominium building's 43 planned stories had been erected, and the crane was scheduled to be moved Saturday so workers could start work on a fresh story when a piece of steel fell and sheared off one of the ties holding it to the building, according to Stephen Kaplan, an owner of the Reliance Construction Group, which manages construction at the site.
"It was an absolute freak accident," Kaplan told the Associated Press. "All the piece of steel had to do was fall slightly left or right, and nothing would have happened."
But it did, and while the city never issued the crane a safety violation at this project, there have been other troubles over the past two years.
There were 13 violations at the site since January of 2006 - that's over a 27 month period. Those 13 violations were issued to he general contractor and owner.
Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer says the past violations should have raised a red flag with inspectors that there may have been bigger problems on the site.
"Clearly I take exception to the fact that we should be satisfied, when the most serious violations are on a major construction project. We put construction workers at risk. We put citizens at risk."
Crews will work overnight to carefully pull out the crane before investigators can determine what caused it to break apart.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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