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Stricter Window Guard Rules Proposed in Wake of Fatal Fall

By DNAinfo Staff on April 8, 2011 5:53pm  | Updated on April 8, 2011 6:21pm

Keith Mastronardi, 31, fell to his death from his fifth-floor apartment at 340 East 74th Street Sunday night. Mastronardi left behind three children and a wife.
Keith Mastronardi, 31, fell to his death from his fifth-floor apartment at 340 East 74th Street Sunday night. Mastronardi left behind three children and a wife.
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By Jill Colvin

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

CITY HALL — The City Council has introduced new legislation to crack down on window guard violations less than a week after a beloved father of three fell to his death from a fifth-story window on the Upper East Side.

The legislation, which is being backed by the city's departments of Health and Housing Preservation and Development, would give the HPD authority to oversee window guard rules and issue violations to landlords who fail to install them, just as they do for other building maintenance problems.

Window guards must be installed in any apartment where children under the age of 11 live, a Health Department spokeswoman said.

Today, duties are split between the Health Department, which monitors the installation of the guards and sends out inspectors in response to complaints from tenants and 311, while HPD installs the guards if a property owner fails to act.

Keith Mastronardi, 31, slipped while trying to open a window in the  apartment where he lived with his three young children on East 74th Street shortly before 11 p.m. Sunday, police said.

"By giving HPD the authority to enforce window guard compliance and issue violations when necessary, we tap into the agency's pool of resources and inspectors to ensure that our children continue to be safe in their homes and irresponsible owners are held accountable," City Councilman Erik Martin Dilan, who introduced the legislation, said in a statement.

Department of Health Commissioner Thomas Farley said the city's window guard rules have saved hundreds of children's lives.

"This legislation will improve window guard enforcement procedures, and strengthen our capacity to prevent childhood injury and death," he said.

Building owners must ask tenants when they sign or renew a least whether children under the age of 11 live in the apartment. They are also also required to send tenants the notification for once a year.

HPD said the timing between Sunday's tragedy and the legislation was coincidental.