New York Injury Lawyer Blog

A federal judge has appointment a former prosecutor to investigate allegations of corruption in the union that represents most heavy equipment and crane operators in New York City.

The New York Times reported that supporters of the appointment hope to eliminate what they say has been decades of corruption and abuse of the system.

The New York City crane accident lawyers and construction accident attorneys at Queller, Fisher, Washor, Fuchs & Kool continue to follow developments in the troubled New York City crane industry, which has been involved in several high-profile fatal accidents in recent years.

The Times reported that much remains uncertain for the 1,600-member union, which traditionally has wielded substantial power because of the ability of its tower crane operators to shut down high-rise construction projects.

In addition to the racketeering cases, two tower crane accidents last year left nine people dead and brought greater scrutiny to crane operations and licensing. Since then, there have been allegations that union officials helped unqualified operators obtain crane licenses.

Those accidents, which claimed the lives of New York City construction workers, civilians and tourists, also resulted in criminal charges, including the arrest of a building inspector accused of lying about conducting safety inspections.

Crane operators are required to be licensed separately through the city and receive one of three types of crane licenses depending on what type of crane they are permitted to operate.The New York City Building Department licenses more than 1,700 crane operators.

Data from the U.S. Census of Fatal Occupational Injury identified 632 deaths involving cranes from 1992 and 2006 - an average of 42 deaths per year. The majority of the deaths were caused by truck cranes, followed by overhead or gantry cranes, tower cranes and floating or barge cranes.