Crews Begin Removing Construction Crane that Collapsed in TriBeCa Friday

One person died and two others were seriously injured when a crane collapsed in Lower Manhattan during a snow squall Thursday, smashing the roofs of parked cars as it crashed onto the street, authorities said.

Images from the scene showed the crane’s boom had landed across several parked cars, crushing their roofs.

The recommendations included requiring the use of black boxes to record data from crane operations, tighter rules on inspection of bolted connections on cranes, putting technical advisers on site during crane assembly and other measures.

Officials from the city’s building department are checking the stability of nearby buildings that were also struck by the crane. It could take longer for the street to reopen as officials inspect it and fix damaged pavement, he said.

“Our hearts go out to the families of the individual who has been lost”, Mayor de Blasio said at a late morning news conference. Officials are working to determine why a huge construction crane that was being lowered during strong winds came crashing down onto a street.

The fire department said on Twitter that the collapse occurred near 40 Worth St. Pictures released by the department showed the crane flipped upside down. Still, several office buildings in the area were evacuated.

A construction crane fell down in NYC, killing 1 man and leaving 3 injured. The accident was reported around early Friday in the Tribeca neighborhood.

The building’s owners declined to comment.

The crane was being used to replace generators and air conditioning equipment in the building on 60 Hudson Street since January 30 in the area known as Tribeca. “It’s something of a miracle that there was not more of an impact”.

A witness who works nearby says he saw onlookers trying to help a person who was trapped in a vehicle. The operator of the crane is a member of the Local 14 International Union of Operating Engineers.

An order had been given for the city’s 376 mobile cranes and 43 fixed cranes to be put in a secure position, De Blasio said.

Office of Emergency Management Commissioner Joseph Esposito said they hope to have the crane fully removed from the street by Sunday night.

Now, the de Blasio administration plans to invest $120 million to add 100 new building inspectors for a total of 500.

De Blasio said the construction crews had blocked off traffic on West Broadway in anticipation of lowering the crane and said a crew was “directing people away from Worth Street” as the boom was being lowered. As a effect, four people were killed and dozens were injured.

Workers were lowing the machine at the time of the collapse.