UPDATE: Construction has been suspended at the site of the 7 train extension after a worker was killed in a crane collapse, the MTA just announced.
The Department of Buildings will also conduct an investigation into the collapse, the MTA reported.
Department of Buildings inspectors, as well as police, the Manhattan district attorney’s office and members of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration are on site now, the MTA announced.
Additionally, Michael Horodniceanu, president of MTA Capital Construction projects like the 7 train extension, ordered all cranes at the site inspected, according to the MTA statement.
The construction worker was killed last night after a crane collapsed at the Midtown West site of the MTA 7 train extension project. Four others were injured, according to police.
According to fire officials, the accident happened at 7:20 p.m. Two large pieces of a crane — an 80-foot piece and a 40-foot one — collapsed at West 34th Street and 11th Avenue.
One worker, who later died, was unconscious and receiving CPR when he was transported to Bellevue Hospital. A second worker was treated for a broken leg and listed in stable condition.
“The people who were injured were 60 feet down in the pit,” FDNY Deputy Chief Bill Seelig told DNA Info. “So, it wasn’t an easy removal. It was a complicated job because it wasn’t at ground level.”
“It sounded like a bomb went off,” a witness told the New York Post. “When I turned, I didn’t see the crane, the one that is always here. So we knew what it was right away. We saw a plume of smoke.”
No other buildings were damaged by the collapse, according to a police official.
The cause of the collapse was not immediately clear.
