Crane Owner Faces Jail In Deadly NYC Construction Accident
photo courtesy of the Associated Press
Kudos to the new Manhattan DA for getting this one right. Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance has filed serious criminal charges against the owner of a Manhattan construction company that he says put a defective crane into service.
In May 2008, Donald Leo was operating a crane at a construction site on New York's Upper-East Side when it snapped and crashed into an apartment building on 91st Street, killing Leo and a construction worker. The giant crane had been rented by a developer from a company owned by James Lomma of Staten Island.
Now, Lomma has been charged with manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in connection with his role in the tragedy - charges which can result in 20 years in prison. In the indictment, Manhattan DA Vance says that Lomma knew an essential part of the crane was defective. But Vance says that instead of paying for a proper replacement part, Lomma used a much cheaper part built by an unqualified Chinese company. In his indictment, Vance says that the company even warned Lomma that the makeshift repair wouldn't hold, but Lomma rented the machine anyhow!
And to add insult to injury, this collapse happened just two months after another fatal crane collapse on East 51st Street that also involved a crane rented from one of Mr. Lomma’s companies. Seven people died in that crane collapse, but Mr. Lomma was not charged.
The 64 year-old Lomma – owner of the New York Crane and Equipment Corp - could serve the rest of his life behind bars.
But even that hefty price is still no match for the suffering faced by the families that lost their loved ones—men who innocently went to work one day and never came home. It's often the case that construction company owners who break the law just get sued under for negligence under New York Labor Law 241(6). They don't usually face criminal charges - which is certainly a much stronger deterrent. Thanks to DA Vance's indictment, that might be changing now.
The goal must be increased worker safety and preventing future fatal construction site accidents.
