Falling debris killed 67 year old woman in Queens, NYC

A pedestrian was killed by falling debris in New York City. 67 year old Xiang Ji was walking on Main Street near 41st Street in Flushing, Queens Thursday morning around 9:45 am. There was a strong wind and as she walked in front of the building located at 41-28 Main Street, a piece of plywood covered with aluminium detached from the roof and fell on her.

The woman was knocked down on the sidewalk. Witnesses tried to help her until EMS arrived. She was rushed to the hospital but she couldn’t be saved.

The building owner who has 18 violations open with the DOB was slapped with another violation for failure to properly maintain the building. The DOB also required the owner of the building to erect a sidewalk shed on the top of the sidewalk to protect pedestrians from any further problems. The previous violations were mostly related to effectuating work without a permit inside the building. (Picture of the location of the accident: courtesy of Google Map)

Debris falls on taxi  from luxury super-tall building

The wind was extremely strong on Thursday in New York City, reaching peaks of 50 mph.  Debris also fell from a building in Manhattan and damaged the roof of a yellow taxi. Nobody was injured in the scary accident during which debris fell from a super-tall high rise under construction located at 111 West 57th Street. A piece of debris hit the taxi so forcefully that it created a hole in the roof. At the time of the accident, there was a passenger in the taxi. Neither the passenger nor the driver were injured. They called 911 immediately and the police temporarily closed  the street. The DOB issued a stop work order to the building and investigation identified a piece of terra cotta among the debris. It is not the first time that the street had to be closed around the 111 5th Street construction site. Last December a piece of metal debris fell from the building. The area also had to be closed recently because of falling ice (See previous blog).