However, questions remain about the strength of the case.

On 30 May, 2008, a Kodiak tower crane owned by New York Crane and rented out for a job on 333 East 91st Street collapsed, killing operator David C Leo and another worker, Ramadan Kurtaj. A third man, Simeon Alexis, was seriously injured by debris.

As well as filing charges against Lomma and Varganyi, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R Vance Jr filed charges against New York Crane & Equipment Corp and J F Lomma Inc.

The accident was investigated by the City of New York Department of Investigations (DOI). In a statement on the charges, DOI commissioner Rose Gill Hearn said: “The crane collapse on East 91st Street has been examined in meticulous detail by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, DOI, the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (“OSHA”), and the City Department of Buildings (“DOB”) with the assistance of technical experts.

“The investigation has shown that the horrific event and loss of life was not random or unavoidable but the result of criminal recklessness and negligence, according to the indictment.

“DOI investigators were among those who responded to the site immediately after the crash. Having investigated the previous crane collapse on East 51st Street, they knew what records to check, whom to speak to and the importance of a fast start. They worked around the clock to find and preserve the evidence.

“The discoveries made focussed the investigation on the crane’s broken turntable and its beleaguered history. Investigators climbed over rubble and debris to observe the crane’s breaking point. We learned that the turntable was removed from a midtown job site a year earlier because of a dangerous crack.”

A statement from the district attorney’s office explained forensic engineers investigating the accident had concluded that the failure of a structural weld in the crane’s turntable caused the crane collapse. In the collapse, the weld failure caused the crane’s cab, boom and other upper sections to break off and fall to the sidewalk and street from an elevation of approximately 200ft.

The district attorney’s statement explained that the charges are based on decisions that had been made when New York Crane chose suppliers to repair the turntable. The statement says: “A crack in the crane’s turntable was discovered in May of 2007 by workers at an unrelated high-rise construction project. New York Crane replaced the part with a similar turntable from another Kodiak crane, and the project was successfully completed. The company, however, lost approximately USD50,000 a month in rental fees due to its one unusable crane, according to court documents.

“That summer James Lomma directed Tibor Varganyi, to find a replacement turntable. New York Crane and J F Lomma Inc received estimates from two reputable turntable manufacturers, with replacements costing between USD34,000 and USD120,000, and taking a period of seven months to two years, respectively, to deliver.

“A Chinese bearing manufacturer, RTR Bearing, offered to fabricate a replacement bearing in China for approximately USD20,000, with an estimated delivery time of three months. Without conducting due diligence on this unknown company, the defendants relied on RTR’s unverified representations on their website and hired them to do the job, as charged in the indictment and described in court filings.

“The defendants violated City regulations and industry standards when they failed to employ an engineer to oversee the repairs, failed to hire a certified welding company to perform the work, and provided RTR with grossly inadequate welding specifications that were contrary to the specifications of the original bearing manufacturer.

“Additionally, contrary to a previous directive from DOB, the defendants did not seek prior approval from DOB before ordering the replacement part from RTR, thus preventing DOB from reviewing the means and methodology of repair. The defendants also violated provisions of the New York City Building Code requiring that the repaired and replaced turntable be as safe as the original and be made in accordance with the specifications of the original manufacturer.

“The defendants installed the replacement turntable on the East 91st Street tower crane in April 2008. The defendants also received a second turntable from RTR, with an obviously deficient weld. Despite learning of the defect in the identical part, the defendants took no further action to ensure the integrity of the welding on the turntable that had already been installed on the crane at East 91st Street.

“On the morning of 30 May, 2008, the weld made by RTR in the turntable on the Kodiak tower crane at 333 East 91st Street failed, causing the upper portions of the crane to break off and fall to the ground, killing two people and seriously injuring a third.”

Department of Buildings Commissioner Robert LiMandri said: “Taking shortcuts on the job site to save money led to tragic consequences in this case, and these charges serve as an important reminder of the construction industry’s responsibility to safeguard their sites and ensure all New Yorkers are protected. Since 2008, the Buildings Department has instituted a number of reforms to increase construction safety and oversight, including increased inspector training, expanded inspection checklists and more than 20 new safety laws. As a result, construction-related fatalities in New York City dropped 84% in 2009.”

The case is likely to hinge on emails between the Chinese firm and New York Crane. The district attorney is likely to cite an email, sent by RTR Bearing employee Joyce Wang to Tibor Varganyi on 6 July saying: “And honest speaking we don’t have confidence on this welding.” However, a second email seen by Cranes Today may suggest that New York Cranes had reason to believe RTR was later confident in the bearing.

On 9 July 2007, Wang wrote to Tibor Varganyi, saying: “Thank you for your drawing, we fully understand your meaning on this. We can do this, but because of the welding, price is much higher than before. Update price for this is USD21710/PC, delivery is 80-90 days.”

The address to which the email was sent is not clearly connected to a domain controlled by New York Crane, but to a third party hosting company. It is not copied to anyone else, so it is unclear, from this email at least, whether Lomma or anyone else at New York Crane was directly involved in the decision over the choice to use RTR.

Wang subsequently forwarded this email to Robert Stewart at OSHA, the US Occupational Health and Safety Administration, on 21 July 2008, after the fatal accident on East 91st Street.



Related Files
RTR Bearing email