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 The collapse came at 8 am, just 24 hours after a stop-work order on the site was rescinded.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.” (More New York stories.)