N.Y. Crane Collapse Kills 2 and Injures 1

NEW YORK, May 30 -- Andy Alvarez was working at a construction site on the Upper East Side of Manhattan on Friday when he heard a sound "like a huge thunder, a rumbling sound, like an earthquake, followed by a boom," he said.

It was a crane snapping apart and collapsing onto a 23-story apartment building across the street from his work site. The incident echoed a similar one in Manhattan in March, in which seven people were killed, and after which a city building inspector was arrested on charges of lying about inspecting the crane. It also was similar to crane collapses in March in Miami and last week in Kansas City.

Two people were killed and one was seriously injured in Friday's accident. Officials could not immediately pinpoint the cause of the collapse that took place around 8 a.m., but some said they were troubled that it had not been averted by recent changes in regulations -- including extra inspections and supervision when cranes are raised higher.

"We heard somebody say, 'Just run! Run for your lives! Get out!' " said Alvarez, 44, recalling the initial panicked reaction.

Debris was raining down -- glass and bricks from the building across the street where pieces of the crane had bounced down and pried off the edges of balconies, according to witnesses.

"It was frantic," said Alvarez, a deeply tanned, muscular, tattooed man in a hard hat, a black shirt, overall jeans and construction boots. Some, but not all, of the details of his account could be independently confirmed.

Alvarez said he saw that the cab of the crane was "almost buried in the ground," and that the man he knew as Donny, the crane operator, was buried inside it. "I just broke down. I was overwhelmed by grief," Alvarez said.

Later, officials identified the crane operator as Donald Leo, 30, the son of a retired Fire Department lieutenant -- dead at the scene.

But Alvarez said he saw another injured man who looked as though he could be saved. He was partially covered by a piece of the crane, and he had head and leg wounds, he said.

"Me and three other guys tried to get him out," Alvarez said, describing how he started trying to pull rubble off of the man, only to find him tightly pinned, material holding down his wrist. A Fire Department spokesman confirmed the details of how the man was pinned down.

"He was alert, he had his eyes open, and was looking at us," said Alvarez, but the man didn't say a word. "I just told him, 'Hold on. Help is coming. Don't fall asleep,' " Alvarez said. "We gave him water."

Soon, Alvarez said he saw firefighters use special inflatable bags to move the crane and extract the man.