It turns out that the crane company involved with the East 91st
street accident, owned by one James F. Lomma, has some track record.
The New York Times, September 18, 1999
Crane Secured for Storm Falls, Killing a Worker in Chelsea
By JODI WILGOREN with KEVIN FLYNN
A huge crane collapsed at a Chelsea construction site yesterday
morning, killing one worker and injuring three others after the crane
operator tried to hoist the boom without releasing special restraints
intended to prevent an accident once Hurricane Floyd reached the
city, officials said.
The 383-foot red steel crane, which had become a fixture in the
bustling neighborhood, buckled under the restraints, tumbled backward
and crashed at the corner of 24th Street and the Avenue of the
Americas just after 7 A.M., crushing a carpenter who was having
breakfast on the sidewalk before heading to work at the site.
The man, Kenneth Preiman, 43, suffered severe head injuries and was
pronounced dead at the scene, where the crane knocked over a traffic
light and a lamppost and left a hole a foot deep in the sidewalkÂ
A field supervisor for Laquila/Pinnacle said both the crane operator
and the victim worked for the company, which is based in Mamaroneck,
N.Y. Laquila/Pinacle has been subcontracted to create the concrete
superstructure for the 29-story, $75 million apartment building,
which is scheduled to open in the spring. The crane belonged to New
York Crane, a subsidiary of Lomma Construction.
---
The New York Times, March 17, 2008
Fall of Six-Ton Support Caused Crane to Topple
By WILLIAM NEUMAN and CHARLES V. BAGLI
The spectacular collapse of a towering crane on the East Side began
when a massive piece of steel designed to secure it to a new
high-rise building came loose and pancaked on top of a second support
nine stories below, shearing it free and creating a fatal imbalance
that sent the 22-story crane toppling across a two-block swath of
Turtle Bay, officials said on Sunday.
Officials were focusing their investigation in part on the way the
steel piece -- called a ''collar'' -- was being installed, including
whether a series of hoists and nylon straps used to hold it
temporarily in place were strong enough to sustain its weight, said
Patricia J. Lancaster, the buildings commissioner. Building officials
estimated the weight at 12,000 pounds.
Meanwhile, work crews and rescuers swarmed over the site of the
disaster, on 51st Street and 50th Street just east of Second Avenue.
They began to remove portions of the broken crane's white lattice
tower, one leaning against a 19-story building on 51st Street and
another, which had broken off and tumbled through the air, lying
across a demolished four-story town house on 50th Street.
Four construction workers -- a crane operator and three riggers who
were helping to ''jump'' the crane, or increase its height -- were
killed. Three people were missing. On Sunday, as hope dwindled,
firefighters, including a unit that specializes in building
collapses, continued to search for signs of life. ''We're still
calling it a search operation, though with each passing hour, things
are getting more grim,'' said Nicholas Scoppetta, the fire commissioner.
The crane was owned by New York Crane & Equipment Corporation, but it
had apparently been leased to one of the contractors involved in the project.
---
NY Times, May 31, 2008
Investigators Look at Equipment, Not Crane's Operators
By WILLIAM NEUMAN
Investigators are focusing on a bad weld as the possible cause of an
accident on Friday in which the top of a crane snapped off, crashed
into a building across the street and killed two construction
workers, the city's acting buildings commissioner said.
Investigators were also trying to determine whether a crucial part of
the crane - the rotating plate that connects the cab and boom at the
top to the tower - had been removed from a different construction job
a year ago after developing a dangerous crack, another city official said.
Questions about the history and condition of the turntable may turn
the focus of the investigation to its owner, New York Crane, which
was also the company that owned the crane that collapsed on March 15
on East 51st Street.
That accident occurred under very different circumstances, when
sections were being added to increase the crane's height.
Investigators believe that the crew making the crane taller may have
made mistakes in the way they supported a huge steel collar high up
on the crane. The collar fell, knocking out the cranes supports and
causing it to collapse onto nearby buildings.
James F. Lomma, the owner of New York Crane and Equipment, did not
return calls left at his office in New Jersey or on his cell phone.
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