The crane company charged this week with manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in a 2008 crane collapse still operates three tower cranes in New York City, all of them in Lower Manhattan.
The three tower cranes, named for their size, are at the World Trade Center site, the former Deutsche Bank building and Milstein Properties’ Liberty Luxe condo in Battery Park City, according to news reports. The city Dept. of Buildings said those cranes are inspected regularly and are different from the one that collapsed on E. 91st St. on May 30, 2008, killing two people and seriously injuring a third.
On Monday, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. announced the indictment of New York Crane & Equipment Corp., J.F. Lomma Inc., owner James Lomma and former mechanic Tibor Varganyi in the 2008 deaths. Vance said New York Crane’s leaders were greedy and reckless, skirting safety measures to save time and money. The defendants pleaded not guilty on Monday.
