A man died and four other people were injured in a crane collapse in New York around 8:30 this morning. The accident took place on Worth Street near Church Street. The accident occurred when a massive construction crane whose boom extended 565 feet high collapsed on a row of park cars. The accident was caught on video by Glenn Zito, a construction worker who was on the upper floors in a building across the street. Glenn and two of his colleagues had just been ordered to stop to work on the upper floors because the wind was too strong. He was on his way down when he capture the below video.
According to FDNY, 38 year old David Wichs had just exited from his car when the crane crashed on him and killed him. Mr. Wichs was an outstanding young man who immigrated from Czechoslovakia as a teenager, graduated from Harvard and worked in the financial industry. He lived with his wife in Manhattan on the upper west side. He was said by friends to be an extremely decent man. Still in the car was 73 year old Thomas O’Brien who suffered head laceration but survived. Another victim, 45 year old Dawn Kojima suffered leg injury and another person suffered minor injury after being hit by debris.
This morning the wind was blowing at more than 20 mph and it was snowing. The crew had suspended work and a decision was made to lower the crane to a more secure level. The accident happened as construction workers were lowering the crane’s boom in order to move it into a safe and secure position .
New York Personal Injury Attorneys Blog
In their Trial Advocacy column in the New York Law Journal, New York Personal Injury Attorneys Ben Rubinowitz and Evan Torgan write: “In crafting the cross of a witness, the trial lawyer must look beyond the obvious. Instead of just focusing on what was said, the trial lawyer should explore that which was not said, but should have been said. These omissions and failures often lead to the most compelling arguments on summation. The problem is that most lawyers are fearful of the unknown.”
