Newsday (Nassau Edition) from Hempstead, New York • 23

IT TV Falling Debris Not Always Accidental Another construction company official who also asked not to be identified acknowledges that he may have workers on the job who intentionally endanger the public "Do you think I have all sane he asks "If you think we have a drug abuse problem on thejob American society degrees of In addition to the two undercover investigations mentioned by Smith police are looking into the June incident in which John Nichols was killed by a board that fell from a high-rise under construction at 977 Eighth Ave Smith referred the investigation to the police even though there was no reason to suspect that the accident "was the re-sult of anything other than careless- herty explains The message he adds apparently got across undercover assignment was not this only time a builder in New York has called in detectives to look into allegations that workers have been tossing things off high-rise buildings City Buildings Commissioner Charles Smith says at least two similar undercover operations are under way now though ne declined to name the targeted sites "There are a handful of people out there who are maniacs and have no respect for human says Smith who says he knows of two cases in which pedestrians have been beaned by objects thrown from buildings under construction inNew York in one case by an empty caulking tube in another by an orange-juice container filled with hardened cement A top official at a nuyor construction firm who asked not to be identified confirms that his company also has employed private detectives on a number of occasions to follow up reports of workers throwing things off buildings In one case the executive says the anmipany was able to single out the individual involved of cement landed three feet away Rideout says that when he showed it to a man who said he was the construction foreman he was told afraid we've got some wise guys on this prqject and the terrible part is we prove it and we catch Ralph Moss a free-lance writer who lives near the site and was almost hit by a four-by-four that fell from the building in March says he and hia wife who appeared on focal television after Nichols was killed received three threatening telephone calls the following day One caller Moss says identified himself as "one of those drunken bastards over at the construction and said "The next one is for Richard Barber co-owner of a five-story apartment building behind a high-rise going up at 52 East End Ave says workers "have been dropping things with great Although independent contractor Herbert Weinstein building the high-rise for Realex Capital Corporation would not comment on specific incidents he said his company has done all it can to ensure adequate protection LarryBivina Last March after a woman complained to the city that her car windshield was smashed by a piece of wood falling from a 48-story condominium tower on the Upper East Side developer Robert Gladstone hired three undercover investigators to look into the possibility that material was being deliberately thrown off the building The investigators set up three hidden cameras and videotaped workers at the site at 1778 Second Ave for eight days What they discovered was alarming: On several occasions workers on upper floors could be seen flinging the 12-inch plastic tops from speckling containers off the building like they were Frisbees "They would hit the wall then ricochet to the says Richard Flaherty a retired New York City police officer who is director of security for company Madison Equities The images on tape were too unclear to identify the culprits Flaherty says But word of the undercover surveillance was leaked to workers at the site "My primary purpose was in stopping whatever was going on before someone got seriously injured" Fla Whatever the outcome of the police investigation a number of people who live and work in the neighborhood suspect that the board that killed Nichols may have been deliberately thrown Philip Rideout head of Keystone Publishing said he was walking near the Eighth Aven fore Nichols A Towering Problem of Construction Safety Continued from Page 7 fired by the general contractor for disregarding safety regulations Nor in many cases can subcontractors be penalized by the general contractor HKH Construction the most active builder in the city is only now instituting contract provisions that will give it the right to withhold money from subcontractors for unsafe work practices some workers toss-and wide- ing MiMfiB MM IIUBBIil Sloppiness by i of objects off 1 spread disregard for such safety quirements as hard hats and hnmrnocn contribute to unsafe conditions at construction sites industry and city officials say According to Smith at least two undercover investigations are under way into allegations that workers have been throwing things off buildings The federal Occupational Health and Safety Administration is less vigilant than it once was largely as a result of budget- cutbacks during the Reagan administration Five years ago there were 25 OSHA inspectors covering Manhattan and Brooklyn now there are only seven and four of those were sent recently to California to help temporarily with a shortage of tc i number of construction site inspections in the first half of the cur- rent fiscal year is down nearly SO percent over the previous year And not unusual for high-risea to go up in New York without ever being inspect- OSHA concedes Efraim Zoldan doing a good job monitoring safety The building cited for the most violations in the city 52 since construction began in September 1985 is a luxury condominium called the Waterford on Second Avenue and 93 rd Street Advertisements for the building owned by Madison Equities promise Italian marble bathrooms and breathtaking views But those living near the site describe another sort of breathtaking experience The owner of a wholesale beverage company two doors down from the frame tered his roof last felL In March i was struck by a piece of wood that dropped from a high floor And recently a woman was nearly speared by a board that fell into the back yard of the building next door tenants who have brought harassment charges against developer Robert Gladstone inspectors have issued violations for among other things ing toeboards lack of permits an unsafe sidewalk shed an unprotected elevator shaft and failure to provide adequate housekeeping They've ordered work on the building stopped eight timaa And Gladstone who is acting as his own general contractor has been slapped with $23000 in fines Gladstone says he recently replaced the safety manager and has made every effort to repair construction-related damage to neighboring buildings The high-rise he rfaima fe now in compliance with safety regulations Buildings Commissioner Smith says fines such as the ones imposed at the Waterford much of a punishment "I think fines will ever go high enough to be a deterrent says Smith who has asked city lawyers to look into the constitutionality of a city law allowing him to issue stop-work orders as a punitive measure Forcing a contractor to shut down a site could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars a day he says an awesome power but the notion of stopping a job for punitive reasons would be enough to scare At 236 47th St the Buildings Department halted work at the site last-month after viewing a series of Continued on Next Page aimumi Ncwadajr Jeffery A Seller Workers passing construction material at a high-rise site in Manhattan i of the Manhattan office All this adds up to a culture of non-compliance at many of the high-rises under construction At 977 Eighth Ave where Nichols was killed in June HRH the construction manager had been cited for 24 violations of the city building code sinceground was broken an the 56-stoiy condominium tower a year and a half ago Among the infractions noted by inspectors were lackoftoeboards the four-inch verti- Another Zeckendorf project on Union Square this one being mult by Tish-man Construction has been cited for 46 safety violations On Jan 11 according to Buildings Department re- cords bricks and timbers fell from an upper floor of the 28-story residential tower forcing police to dose off a section of East 15th Street No injuries were reported A spokeswoman for Tishman says the felling debris was an "isolated incident caused by extremely high winds" and that officials at the site are destrian Vickie and in an brownstone Yet HRH was levied $3600 in fines hardly a dent on a multimillion-dollar project And even with the benefit of computerised records the Buildings Department fidled to see a clear pattern of trouble "Tanking back in hindsight1-Smith "we should have The building at 977 Eighth Ave is owned by William Zeckendorfi one of New most prolific developers open floor to prevent debris and from slipping off the building failure to provide adequate housekeeping and unsafe storage of materials near the edge On four occasions before the accident the Buildings Department had received repeals of debris falling off the building in one case injuring a pe V'- I 1 ji i i -r 1 i- i fc i- 1 i I i 1 i I vrv rr cW A.