The site of the future Virgin Hotel, a project with backing from tycoon Richard Branson, was the scene of a recent construction accident at 30th Street near its intersection with 6th Avenue.
An immense drill weighing nearly 42 tons tipped over, crushing a New York Police Department van that was parked adjacent to the Midtown site.
According to reports from the Fire Department New York, a Casagrande B175 XP drill was making its way towards the site around 9 a.m. Video recordings show the drill’s boom gradually tipping over on the van as a woman dashed out of harm’s way.
The 52-year-old foreman at the site said, “The machine was going up the little hill. All the weight’s in the back. It just went backward.”
The spokesperson for the FDNY said that there were no injuries. However, a stop work order was issued to the site by the Department of Buildings for failure to safeguard the equipment.
The owner of the site, LG Broadway Management, was unavailable for comment. No response was given by the construction site’s lead contractor, Flintlock Construction Services, when a request for comment was made to them.
The project is slated to be completed next year and will take up almost a full city block with 38 stories and 460 rooms.
That nobody was injured in the construction site accident is fortunate, as many such incidents result not only in serious injuries but fatalities as well. The proximity of other buildings to structures being erected means that there is very little room for error when moving large, unwieldy pieces of heavy machinery.
Those who are injured in accidents on construction sites, whether workers or passersby, have the right to seek compensation through the civil courts for their injuries and other damages.
Source: DNAInfo.com, “Huge Construction Drill Tips Over and Crushes NYPD Van in Midtown,” Gwynne Hogan, Anton K. Nilsson and Aidan Gardiner, Sep. 28, 2015