Manslaughter Charges Expected in Crane Collapse

Yesterday, the New York Times reported that "Manhattan prosecutors are expected to announce manslaughter charges on Monday [today] against the rigger who was overseeing the raising of a tower crane on the East Side last year when it collapsed, killing seven, according to people briefed on the case."

"The rigger, William Rapetti, has also been charged with criminally negligent homicide, reckless endangerment and second-degree assault in the spectacular disaster, in which the 22-story crane plunged across East 51st Street, piercing one building and tearing terraces off another, the people said. The accident, on March 15, played out across a two-block swath of the Turtle Bay neighborhood, leaving two dozen people injured and the streets strewn with rubble."

If you think that you can just ignore jobsite safety without significant consequences, think again. Not only do you have to live with the knowledge that your actions (or inaction) resulted in the injury or death of a fellow worker, probably loss of your job, and inability to ever get another job doing what you love to do, you may also end up in jail! Click here to read the whole story in the NY Times.