A 45-year-old construction worker was killed at a Manhattan job site Friday morning when the cherry picker he was operating crashed into a steel beam, police said.
The incident happened about 9:15 a.m., with the worker striking his head on the beam as it was elevating. He died at the scene, E. 35th St. near Park Ave. in Murray Hill.
He was identified by his brother as Jose Ramirez. Another worker in the cherry picker, 35, suffered minor injuries and was taken to Bellevue Hospital, where he was listed in stable condition, police said.
The Department of Buildings said both men were standing in the lift and were 32 feet above ground when it struck the beam.
The workers were part of a crew tearing down a one-story building owned by the Community Church of New York, in Murray Hill, according to the DOB. It is one of five adjacent structures being demolished.
The Continuum Company recently bought the property for $66 million and plans to build a luxury 18-story condo building with 137 apartments. Continuum officials went to the scene of the accident, but did not immediately comment.
The DOB said in a statement that engineers and safety inspectors were sent to the scene to comb through “every detail at the site to get to the bottom of how this tragic death occurred.”
“Unsafe conditions on work sites and putting workers at risk is unacceptable,” the statement continued, “and following our investigation, we will take appropriate enforcement actions against the responsible parties.
On Oct. 30, the DOB issued 10 violations to Continuum and to the contractors, in part because the special inspector hired by the developers to oversee certain tasks and to compile mandated inspection reports was not registered with the DOB.
In November, two separate 311 complaints said the demolition work was making the buildings shake. No violations were issued because DOB went to the scene but did not observe any unsafe conditions,
With Julian Roberts-Grmela
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