QUEENS — Two construction workers were killed Tuesday when a crane snapped and the 6,500-pound beam it was hoisting crushed them, city officials said.
The crane was hoisting an I-beam at the construction site at 81-10 135th Street near Union Turnpike when the load became snagged on the building structure, sources said. When the operated maneuvered to free the beam, the cable gave way around 12:10 p.m., according to the FDNY spokesman and a construction company employee.
The beam smashed into the crane cab, killing the operator, George Smith, 47, then fell on a worker on the ground, Alessandro Ramos, 43, who had been holding the tether line, said Donna Morris of CRV Precast Erectors.
Smith, of Bergen Beach, and Ramos, of Jamaica, were pronounced dead at the scene, police said.
Emergency responders were able to extract the man who held the tether line but were still working to remove the man in the cab almost five hours after the accident, according to the DOB.
A preliminary investigation — led by Department of Buildings, Office of Emergency Management, FDNY and NYPD — found that the accident was probably a rigging rope failure and not caused by wind, according to Department of Buildings Commissioner Rick Chandler.
“It’s been windy today, said the commissioner. "But I want to be emphatic that we are not sure if that had played any role."
There was no wind advisory on Tuesday, but gusts were measured at 25 mph at John F. Kennedy Airport Tuesday afternoon, according to a National Weather Service forecast.
Wind and the contractor's failure to implement a safety protocol were found to have caused an enormous crane to topple and crush a mathematician in TriBeCa in February.
A union representative at the site said the weather conditions on Tuesday had caused other construction sites in the city to close.
“A lot of our contractors sent their guys home today,” said Pete Carrigan from the New York City District Council of Carpenters.
And Edwin Palacios, 35, who lives in a building directly adjacent to the site, often worried about the site conditions.
“The crane is always operating too close to the street," said Palacios. "Every time I pass here in my car, I say, 'Oh my god, this is not safe.'”
The crane was last inspected in June, according to Chandler.
