Deadly Tribeca Crane Collapse Was Operator's Fault, City Says

TRIBECA, NY — The deadly crane accident in Tribeca that killed Upper West Side resident David Wichs, 38, as he headed to work on Friday, Dec. 6, has been tied to a series of errors on the part of the crane's operator, the New York City Department of Buildings (DOB) announced Friday.

The DOB has suspended the license of the crane's operator, identified as Kevin Reilly, and has filed a case to revoke his license permanently.

City investigators determined that Reilly failed to secure the crane the night before the accident at 40 Worth St., and that he lowered the main boom of the crane at an improper angle the morning of the crash. This in turn caused the crane to become unstable and topple over, killing Wichs — who was inside his car at the time — and injuring three others, the department said.

“Crane operations have very high stakes, particularly in New York City — and the operators of these huge machines must be held to the highest standards," DOB Commissioner Rick Chandler said Friday. "The crane operator involved in this incident acted recklessly, with tragic results."

The crane, owned by Bay Crane and operated by Galasso Trucking and Rigging, was hoisting generators, cooling towers, rigging material and other equipment to the roof of 60 Hudson St., officials said.

Officials said the crane was being brought down to a more secure position due to high-speed winds of over 20 miles per hour when it collapsed. Bay Crane has a safety standard that requires the crane to be brought down if winds are projected to reach 25 miles per hour.

Contrary to initial reports saying winds caused the collapse, the DOB said it "considered and ruled out additional potential causes of the accident."

The man killed by the crane, Wichs, was headed to his job of 15-years at the trading firm Tower Research Capital in Lower Manhattan the morning of his death. Wichs emigrated from Czechoslovakia when he was a teenager, went to Yeshiva of Flatbush in Brooklyn and earned a mathematics degree at Harvard, the New York Times reports.

Friends and family described Wichs as a humble, loving "math genius."

“David was the happiest person I ever met,” his wife, Rebecca Guttman, 34, said according to the New York Times. “He wanted me to enjoy every day of my life, just as he did his.”

Mayor de Blasio called for new legislation to prevent future crane accidents in the city following the collapse.

"The City Council and the Department of Buildings have been working together to craft a more stringent regulatory system for cranes, designed to make our City safer for all those who live and work here," said Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito. "We at the Council are grateful to the Crane Safety Technical Working Group for their efforts and look forward to continuing to work with the Department of Buildings.”

The DOB plans to submit for City Council consideration a variety of legislative proposals, officials announced. These include:

• Requiring a registration structure of lift directors for all large cranes that goes above and beyond current requirements
• Mandate that lift directors must be registered by DOB, and require training and certification on lift directors
• Instill more stringent licensing requirements
• Allow DOB to create new licensing standards for operators of particularly large and complex cranes

The DOB also intends to clarify existing crane safety requirements, including:

• Cranes must be inspected after every shift to verify they have been properly secured
• Anemometers—devices that measure wind speeds—on most cranes
• A professional engineer must develop a plan specifying the sequence to lower a crane; the plan must be kept in a crane's cab and followed by the operator

Lead photo courtesy of the NYPD