Buildings inspector charged with filing false report before NYC crane collapse

Authorities say the inspector never visited the crane, whose collapse on March 15 killed 7 people. However, officials say it is highly unlikely the missed inspection had any relation to the March 15 incident.

By Consulting Specifying Engineer Staff March 21, 2008

A buildings inspector has been arrested and charged with faking a report that he visited a towering construction crane on the East Side of Manhattan on March 4 in response to a complaint. The inspector, the authorities said, never visited the crane, which toppled and killed seven people 11 days later.

According to the New York Times , officials said that it was highly unlikely that the missed inspection had any relation to the March 15 accident, but the arrest did little to reassure New Yorkers that the cranes towering over the city’s streets are safe.

The officials noted that an inspection on March 14, by a different inspector, of additional tower sections that were to be installed on the crane was done properly.

Marquette was ordered on March 4 to inspect the crane, at a high-rise condominium under construction at 303 East 51st Street, in response to a complaint from a neighborhood resident that it did not appear to be properly supported.

But he did not go to the building site, said Rose Gill Hearn, the commissioner of the Investigations Department. He falsely wrote in a work log that he had been there, she said.

Read the rest of the New York TImes story here.