New York high-rise construction accidents and deaths are increasing

NEW YORK -- Building tall is getting more dangerous in New York.

The death last week of a worker who fell 40 stories off a Donald Trump tower and a spate of recent accidents at other high-rise construction sites have exposed failings such as faulty cranes, overly tight schedules and an ineffective inspection process, industry observers say.

The number of accidents last year at high-rise sites -- buildings 15 stories or higher -- more than doubled, causing five deaths, up from one death in 2006, city Buildings Department records show.

And the risks are growing as more and more tall buildings go up in New York, straining the industry's work force and increasing public pressure to finish quickly and end the noise and disruptions, experts say. There are more than 200 active high-rise construction sites in the city.

"It's not a question of if people are going to get hurt, it's a question of when," said Joel Shufro, executive director of the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health, a workers' rights group.

Fifty-two people were injured on high-rise sites last year, up from 32 a year earlier, city records show. The year's five deaths included two city firefighters killed while a toxic skyscraper was being dismantled across from the World Trade Center site.

The latest accident, just last Monday, killed 53-year-old Yuriy Vanchytsky, who fell off the Trump SoHo hotel-condominium tower when framework holding up freshly poured concrete collapsed. City officials were investigating whether the project's crane had swung and hit the tower before the accident; neighbors had complained that the crane slammed into nearby buildings before. Investigators also were considering whether too much concrete was poured at once.

A crane accident last month on a separate project, the construction of a new Goldman Sachs headquarters, nearly killed an architect. The crane's nylon sling snapped and dropped seven tons of steel onto a construction site office trailer.

Construction officials say the demand for crane operators is forcing some into service before they are fully licensed. Contractors for the Trump and Goldman Sachs projects say their operators were licensed.

Officials say the rising costs of materials such as steel and concrete -- and the call by employers and residents weary of construction noise to finish jobs quickly -- can pressure the construction industry to work too quickly.

"Are the schedules being accelerated so quickly that people are being sloppy and not paying attention to detail?" asked Louis Coletti, president of the Building Trades Employers' Association, the largest contractor group in the city. "The developer wants the project accelerated, offers incentives to do it. Everybody agrees. Add on to that the tremendous volume of work that goes on."

Like several other high-profile jobs in New York, the main contractors on the Trump tower, Bovis Lend Lease and subcontractor DiFama Concrete, were given incentives to finish on time or early.

Coletti and other contractors called a safety summit for this week. Industry officials planned to consider changing a long-standing practice in New York City of pouring one concrete floor every two days; the procedure almost everywhere else takes four days, he said.

More than 60 percent of the accidents that caused material to fall off buildings last year happened when crews were pouring concrete, city Buildings Commissioner Patricia Lancaster said. Workers were either storing construction materials too close to the edges of open floors in unfinished buildings while doing concrete work or weren't using sturdy enough supports to hold the concrete forms, she said.

"Given our city's dense, urban environment, it is paramount that workers follow the regulations and national standards when performing concrete work," Lancaster said.

The city set up two task forces to increase inspections after 2006, when 43 people died in all types of New York City construction accidents, the deadliest year in at least a decade.Shufro said the stepped-up inspections, particularly of scaffolds, helped. "We don't have the epidemic that we were experiencing a couple of years ago," he said.

However, the most serious fines levied against contractors average $1,700, often on multibillion-dollar projects, he said.

The costs "aren't significant enough to be a deterrent," Shufro said.