HUDSON YARDS — A construction worker fell 10 stories to his death Monday after the scaffolding he was standing on broke, police said.
Roger Vail, 62, was surveying the 16th floor of One Manhattan West, at the corner of West 33rd Street and Ninth Avenue, around 6:40 p.m. when the piece of material he was standing on broke, the NYPD said.
The Montgomery, N.Y., resident plunged to the sixth floor and was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.
The city’s Department of Buildings on Monday issued a stop-work order at the site, records show. The planned 67-story building is one of six being developed as part of Brookfield Property Partners’ Manhattan West complex.
“The safety of the men and women working on our site is our number one priority," a spokesman for Brookfield said in a statement. "We are terribly saddened by this tragedy."
Vail had been working for a surveying firm called 50 States Engineering at the time of his death, a spokesman for the project's general contractor, Tishman Construction, confirmed Wednesday.
"We are deeply saddened by this terrible tragedy, and we are actively working with all relevant agencies to investigate the matter,” the spokesman said in a statement. “There are no further details at this time."
The construction worker was a longtime drummer who played in a number of bands over the past several decades, the Times Herald-Record reported.
