NYC Crane Collapse Kills at Least 1

A construction crane collapsed on the Upper East Side of Manhattan today, killing the cab operator and injuring several others, the New York Times reports. The collapse came at 8 am, just 24 hours after a stop-work order on the site was rescinded. The cab of the crane fell 12 stories, crashing into a high-rise condominium tower and through several balconies. The driver, still in the crane, was killed in the fall.

Firefighters swarmed the scene, pulling at least 4 people from the wreckage. About 12 of the building’s 34 floors had been completed; the bottom was to house a middle school. The turntable, which attaches the crane to the tower, “came right off,” a construction worker told the Times. “Boom. There was no weight on it. It boomed up, then just boom! There was no load on it. It wasn’t hooked up to anything.”