Owner of N.Y. Crane Rigging Co. Indicted on Manslaughter

by Mike Hall, Jan 6, 2009

The owner of the crane rigging company who was involved last March in New York City’s high-rise crane collapse that killed six workers and a woman in a nearby building was indicted yesterday on multiple charges of manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, assault and reckless endangerment.

The crane collapsed as workers were “jumping” the crane or installing new sections to the crane so it could extend higher as construction work continued. Workers were attaching a six-ton collar to the crane to anchor it to the 18th floor of the building.

Before installation was complete, the slings holding the collar broke and the collar fell, pancaking two other support collars and leaving the crane unattached to the building. The crane then toppled backward across the street, damaging a 19-story apartment and demolishing a four-story town house.

At a news conference, Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau said that before the rigging operation began, William Rapetti, owner of Rapetti Rigging Services Inc., refused an offer from the project’s construction manager of a new set of slings. Instead he used four of his own, including one with

substantial pre-existing damage [that] would have been obvious to Rapetti had he properly inspected the sling.

Morgenthau also said Rapetti ignored the crane manufacturer’s instructions that eight slings were needed to properly hoist and secure the collar and that he tied the damaged sling around sharp metal edges of the crane without using protective padding, a violation of the building code and federal regulations.

Pointing to the torn and damaged sling, the district attorney said:

This thing costs $50, and Rapetti was willing to risk lives. I find that the most shocking fact in this case.

The charges were filed against Rapetti and his company, and attorneys for both entered not guilty pleas in the state Supreme Court for New York County. If convicted of the most serious charges, he faces up to 15 years in prison.

In September, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) charged Rapetti and his firm with several “willful” safety violations involving the defective sling and other practices on the day of the fatal collapse. The violations carry penalties totaling $220,000.

The Manhattan crane collapse, along with a series of deadly crane accidents in the first half of 2008, focused attention on the Bush administration’s four-year delay in enacting a crane safety standard. In October, the agency issued the proposed rule. But unlike Bush’s last-minute rush of corporate-backed regulations, instead of finalizing the crane safety rule, the Labor Department extended the comment period until Jan. 22, two days after Bush leaves office.

The incoming Obama administration and labor secretary nominee Rep. Hilda Solis (D-Calif.) have pledged to return the Department of Labor and its safety agencies to the job of protecting working people. Solis’ Senate confirmation hearing is set for Friday, and we will keep you up to date on the hearing.

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