Teenage girl dies from injuries from motorcycle crash on Cooper Ave.

NY Daily News

A teenage girl riding on the back of a motorcycle died two days after the 15-year-old boy operating the Yamaha crashed outside a Queens cemetery, police said Thursday.

Alexandra “Allie” Ariza, of Nyack, Rockland County, was seated behind the boy on a 2021 Yamaha motorcycle when he slammed into the front of a Mazda CX-30 just outside St. John Cemetery on Cooper Ave. near 88th St. in Glendale at 3:13 p.m. Feb. 21, cops said.

 Both Alexandra, 16, and the teenage boy were thrown from the motorcycle and found sprawled out on the asphalt.

Medics took the boy to Cohen Children’s Medical Center for a leg injury. Alexandra suffered a head injury and was rushed to Jamaica Hospital, where she died two days later.

“Her smile could light up an entire room, and it lit up many!” her family wrote in an online obituary. “Her voice was elegant yet powerful. Though short lived, her life was full of laughter, love and impact! In her 16 years here on Earth, there is no doubt that Allie touched many lives and continued to do so even after leaving this Earth.”

Teenagers crash into car on Cooper Ave.

 

 

CBS New York 

This is some shitty ass reporting. Not one mention of the moped rider being too young to be riding a motorized vehicle, if that moped was licensed and registered or if he ran the red light. This is the type of less than half-assed journalism and fabricated agenda narrative you get from streetsblog

Make that 323 D.O.B.

 

NY Post

A crane toppled onto a Queens building under construction Friday morning, officials said. 

The commercial boom truck fell along the side and on top of the two-story building on 36th Avenue near 35th Street around Dutch Kills about 8:30 a.m., according to FDNY and Department of Buildings officials. 

Workers told PIX 11 that the crane was loading steel beams into place at the site of the new apartment building when the load apparently became too heavy. 

No one was hurt, officials said. The cause remains under investigation.

“We got a report that there [were] only two workers inside the building under construction. They were also removed,” FDNY Captain Carmine Calderaro said at the scene.

“We had an aerial view of all sides, and we were pretty confident we did our due diligence to make sure nobody was in the building right now.

“Apparently, they were doing some work. The crane was up and moving some equipment around. That’s all I can tell you at this time.”

Billionaire row tower crane spins like a music box ballerina and drops 8 ft. blades on 57th St.

 

 NY Post

A crane on top of a high-rise apartment building in Manhattan went spinning in the wind Thursday evening, sending debris from the under-construction building falling to the street below. 

The crane, atop a Midtown building under construction on West 57th Street near Sixth Avenue, spun wildly in the wind and rain, video taken at the scene shows. 

Fire officials said the FDNY was responding to building debris at 111 West 57th St. It was not clear if there were any injuries in the incident. The NYPD also warned pedestrians to avoid the area because of falling debris.

“Please avoid the area of West 57th Street, between 6th and 7th Avenues due to an unstable crane and falling debris. 

Expect emergency vehicles and traffic in the area,” the department said in a tweet.

The Department of Buildings said the crane was safely secure, but “weathervaning” in the wind, a normal crane function which allows them to swing 360 degrees when not in use. 

The agency was investigating what caused the debris to come crashing down from the building.

Moving vehicle speared by wooden beam that fell off elevated 7 train tracks in Woodside.

QNS


Imagine driving your car down Roosevelt Avenue in Woodside and suddenly seeing a wooden plank falling off the elevated 7 line above and smashing through your windshield.
 
That’s the horrifying experience one driver had on Thursday afternoon — and somehow managed to walk away from the ordeal unscathed.

 
Police said the incident occurred at 12:28 p.m. on Feb. 21 in the area of Roosevelt Avenue and 65th Street.
 
According to law enforcement sources, the unidentified driver was behind the wheel of an SUV heading westbound on Roosevelt Avenue when the wooden beam fell off the 7 line superstructure above and impaled the vehicle.
 
City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer released extraordinary photos of the damage, with the wooden beam sticking out of the top of the window near the passenger side of the vehicle. If someone had been sitting there, Van Bramer indicated, chances are the passenger would have been seriously injured, or even killed, by the beam.


Miraculously, cops said, the driver was unharmed and did not require any medical assistance. 

Even so, Van Bramer said the frightening episode is another example of the poor state of the MTA’s infrastructure.
 
“‪Thankfully the driver was not injured, but someone could have been killed,” Van Bramer said in a statement. “There must be an immediate investigation into how something this dangerous could happen. MTA must answer for our crumbling subway infrastructure before a tragedy occurs.”

Construction death in Brooklyn

From CBS 2:

It was a tragic day in Brooklyn, where a construction worker was fatally struck by falling construction material at a work site in Bedford-Stuyvesant.

Chopper 2 was over the emergency response at the six-story mixed use building project near the corner of Myrtle and Marcy Avenues just before noon.

It was a tragic day in Brooklyn, where a construction worker was fatally struck by falling construction material at a work site in Bedford-Stuyvesant.

Chopper 2 was over the emergency response at the six-story mixed use building project near the corner of Myrtle and Marcy Avenues just before noon.

Riveting story from Jackson Heights

From CBS 2:

Across from his window that morning, and for days leading up to this, workers were making repairs to the transit infrastructure, Carlin reported. The first few workers he questioned denied the projectile came from their site. Then, he said another worker confessed to the accident and gave him an explanation.

“They use a high-powered device to shoot the rivets out. Now, there’s supposed to be another worker on the other end of the rivet to catch the rivet. He said they’re called a muffler. I guess like a baseball catcher would catch a fastball. Except in this case, there was no catcher at the other side,” said Siegel.

CBS2 asked the MTA about safety protocols and why, in this case, they apparently failed. The agency said it’s looking into it.

Watch out for cyclists! (They'll run right into you)

From CBS:

Recent complaints suggest that New York City’s bike riders have gone rogue.

With violations on the rise, some bikers have been caught running read lights and in some cases running over people.

Dash cam video from a recent incident shows a mother pushing a baby carriage in a Brooklyn crosswalk when a man on a bike comes out of nowhere and races through a red light, crashing into the woman and her child.

Fortunately they were able to walk away.

“This happens on a daily basis,” Williamsburg resident Gary Schlesinger said. “Obviously bikers don’t feel the law applies to them.”

2 construction workers die on the job

From NY1:

A deadly fall brought work at the site of the Manhattan West development to a standstill after two men tumbled out of a bucket lift to the ground below.

Video shows the moments after the accident at the 62-story mixed-use building going up at 9th Avenue and 33rd street.

EMS crews rushed one victim to the hospital with head and body trauma. The other was pronounced dead at the scene.

The victims were both 45 years old. Witnesses say both men appeared to be wearing safety harnesses but may not have had them secured.

It happened just hours after another fatal fall in Lower Manhattan Thursday morning. Police say Juan Chonillo fell through an open hole and dropped 27 stories to his death at a construction site on Maiden Lane. According to relatives, the 43-year-old father of six was supporting family in Ecuador.

Hassan chopped!

From DNA Info:

The city has suspended the contractor and superintendent in charge of a work site where a construction collapse last week trapped and seriously injured three workers, officials announced Wednesday.

Ideal Builders and Construction and its superintendent Fazal Hassan were suspended following the June 20 incident at 31-25 28th Road, where the Department of Buildings accused the company of "cutting corners" while building a third-story addition on an existing home.

Officials say Hassan allowed crews to "improperly" load cinder blocks and other heavy equipment onto the newly built third floor, which wasn't stable enough to support the weight.

The floor collapsed, sending the materials crashing through the building's second and first floors, trapping and critically injuring three construction workers, including one man who was pinned under the debris for nearly two hours.

Officials say Hassan — the construction superintendent at the site, as well as at 10 other projects in the city — should have first had an engineer assess the third floor to make sure it was structurally sound.

The DOB is in the process of shutting down work at more than 60 construction sites that Hassan is associated with, according to a spokesman.

Injured construction workers face multiple surgeries

From NBC:

Three construction workers are expected to survive after a building collapsed on top of them in Astoria, Queens. Marc Santia reports.

OSHA is investigating.

Horrific construction accident in Astoria

From NBC:

A crane dropped a materials load into a renovation site in Queens on Tuesday afternoon, injuring three construction workers, including two critically, fire officials said.

Dozens of firefighters descended on a two-story brownstone on 28th Road, between 31st and 33rd streets, in Astoria just before 4 p.m.

"It was just a big explosion," said Astoria resident Marianna O'Neill. "It was loud and it was long."

A 37-year-old construction worker who managed to get out of the building on his own was transported to a hospital with serious injuries.

A 40-year-old construction worker was seen being pulled from the building on a stretcher shortly after 4 p.m. He or she appeared to be conscious but had critical injuries, officials said.

Around 5:30 p.m., firefighters were still working to free a 28-year-old construction worker who was trapped under "a few thousand pounds of construction materials in the basement of the building," FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro said at a press conference, adding that the man's legs were under 1,200-pound beams.

Fire officials said that neither a crane nor a crane boom collapsed. They said a load of materials that had been placed on the roof of the building for renovation collapsed, falling all the way to the ground floor or basement. A large hole could be seen in the roof of the building.

The building is in the process of being converted from a two-family house to a three-family house, according to the Dept. of Buildings database.

Deadly Manhattan construction accident

From the Daily News:

A construction worker plummeted more than 10 stories to his death after a wooden platform gave way underneath him by the Hudson Yards Monday night.

Roger Vail, 62, of Montgomery, N.Y., was working at 400 W. 33rd St. — which is part of the massive Manhattan West development project by Brookfield Properties — doing a survey on the 16th floor at about 6:40 p.m., when he fell through a platform, police sources said.

He dropped to a 6th floor landing, and medics pronounced him dead at the scene, cops said.

The victim, a surveyor hired by 50 States Engineering — a firm hired by the general contractor, Tishman Construction, officials told the Daily News. He was working to raise a “cocooning system” designed to cover areas of active high-rise construction and prevent falls, officials said.

The city Buildings Department issued a full stop-work order at the building Monday, and issued a violation to the contractor for failing to safeguard the site.

Faulty fire ladder kills firefighter

From PIX11:

Hundreds of New York's bravest stood shoulder to shoulder at Wyckoff Heights Medical Center as the flag draped the body of 42-year-old veteran William Tolley was carried out by members of his ladder company.

Tolley responded to a fire at Putnam Avenue in Ridgewood, Queens around 2:30 p.m. Thursday and worked to put it out. He was on the roof during a routine operation, clearing heat and smoke. As he attempted to enter Tower Ladder 135, it began sway.

An anguished FDNY Commissioner Dan Nigro announced the firefighter fell five stories from the roof and perished.

"The circumstances of his fall are under investigation," Nigro said.

Eyewitnesses say they saw the ladder jerking. "It shook so hard that it pushed him down," an onlooker said.

Members of his Engine Company 286 watched in horror as the 14-year veteran lost his foot and plunged to his death.

"There was nothing about the fire that really had anything to do with the accident that occurred," Nigro said. "It was really in the operation that he was performing on the roof, which is a routine operation for us, and, somehow, he fell from the roof."

The routine operation is the subject of an intense investigation by the fire safety unit.

2 workers die on Briarwood construction project

From Eyewitness News:

Two construction workers were killed after a steel beam fell on top of a crane's operator cab in Queens Tuesday.

It happened just after 12 p.m. near the intersection of 82nd Avenue and 134th Street in the Briarwood section, close to where the Van Wyck Expressway and the Grand Central Parkway intersect.

Department of Buildings Commissioner Rick Chandler said the 6,500-pound beam dropped from the fourth floor of the building onto the crane.

Chandler said it appears the rigging rope may have failed while the beam was being lifted, causing the piece of steel to break loose and fall to the ground. Though, the investigation is still ongoing. Wind does not appear to be a factor in the accident.

"It was a 6,500-pound beam going up four stories. I would say the wind would not have a major factor on that," said Chandler.

The workers killed were identified as flag man Alessandro Ramos, 43, and crane operator George Smith, 47. Both were trapped in the wreckage and died at the scene.

Crains reports that this isn't the first work-related death for the contractor.

Feds report that train engineer fled after Maspeth train crash

From the Times Ledger:

A federal probe into a fiery train crash last year faults the railway operator, U.S. Rep. Grace Meng (D–Flushing) announced Sunday. The crash occurred July 8, 2015, when a freight train operated by New York and Atlantic Railway (NYA) slammed into a tractor-trailer at the railroad crossing at Maspeth Avenue and injured the truck’s driver.

The tractor-trailer was leaving a warehouse on Maspeth Avenue when the train clipped it. The truck’s cab then burst into flames as the train dragged it for nearly 200 feet. The driver jumped out of the cab before his truck caught fire, avoiding serious injury.

The Federal Railroad Administra­tion’s (FRA) investigation concluded that the locomotive engineer failed to follow NYA’s operating rules and special instructions for the grade-crossing. The FRA found that the conductor’s failure to take any action to bring the train under control contributed to the accident.

The investigation was further complicated by the disappearance of the train’s engineer.

“FRA was not able to interview the engineer involved in the accident as he went missing immediately after the accident,” the FRA’s Focused Safety Review stated. “In the aftermath of the accident, the locomotive engineer left the scene and did not return to the railway. NYA subsequently terminated his employment.”

The FRA was able to interview the train’s conductor, who was cooperative and raised safety concerns regarding whether he had been adequately trained. The FRA identified several safety issues that NYA needs to address, including its failure to provide and document adequate training as testing of locomotive engineers and conductors, failure to issue certificates for the engineer and conductor, faulty record-keeping software, and the need for several actions to improve grade-crossing safety for motor vehicle users.

Long overdue legislation

From AMNY:

The City Council passed a bill from Public Advocate Letitia James on Wednesday that offers better legal protection for pedestrians that are struck by drivers in the crosswalk.

The bill closes a loophole in city law and give walkers the right of way in a crosswalk when a countdown clock is in progress or when a red hand signal is flashing.

The previous law, which was established before the existence of countdown timers, only granted pedestrians the right to cross the street during a walk symbol.

“This brings our law as it relates to our city into the 21st century,” said James, who hosted a rally at City Hall Wednesday morning before the legislation passed. “It corrects a dangerous loophole that basically offered no legal liability for drivers. We wanted to provide pedestrians some protections under the law.”

Advocates say that the loophole had made it difficult for prosecutors to enforce the city’s “Right of Way” law, a Vision Zero measure passed two years ago that provides a criminal misdemeanor to any driver who strikes a pedestrian or cyclist who has the right of way to cross a street.

A lot of worker deaths go uncounted

From Crains:

The Department of Buildings, which regulates construction, only tracks deaths that involve violations of the city’s construction code. The agency counted 12 fatalities in 2015, including that of a woman hit on the head while walking down the street next to a job site (a violation was issued for failure to safeguard the property).

Meanwhile, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration recorded 17 construction-related fatalities in New York City, and did not include the death of the passerby.

The six fatalities that the city didn’t count include a military veteran who fell down an elevator shaft, a construction safety coordinator crushed by a crane, an ironworker who fell from a ladder and a truck driver caught in the driveshaft of his concrete mixer.

In each of the six cases, OSHA issued violations to the workers’ employers for failing to adhere to safety standards for head protection, fall protection and heat stress, among other violations. The agency slapped all of the contractors with fines of thousands of dollars.

But the Department of Buildings said the six deaths were not in its purview. The agency counts only fatalities that involve a threat to public safety—that is, to people other than construction workers.

Construction worker buried in dirt avalanche

From the Daily News:

A construction worker was rescued from a collapsed trench in Queens on Thursday.

Police said the 40-year-old worker was overseeing construction of the foundations and laying rebar on 72nd Road in Forest Hills when a wall of dirt fell and crushed him.

Firefighters responded at 2:11 p.m. and were able to pull the man to safety with the aid of his fellow workers. Dirt had buried him above his head, an FDNY spokesman said. “He had a pulse, but his body had a blue complexion,” a fire source said.

LIC construction site goes up in flames

Wow.. Work hazard..

A video posted by Angel (@cruzin511) on Dec 19, 2015 at 11:02am PST

From PIX11:

A drilling rig hit a gas line at a construction site, causing the development to burst into flames.

According to FDNY, the fire is being fed by the gas, and crews are trying to protect neighboring buildings.

Four people have been safely rescued from the site.