Have you ever been involved in a crane accident? It’s brutal. I’ve had two crane collapses on my jobsites. In the first, we had a little 50 ton hydraulic crane with a young operator. He just miscalculated the load and laid it down, fortunately with no injuries.

On the Hershey PA High School project, though, the steel erector’s crane had the main cable snap. Joe DiFava, a friend of mine who pays incredible attention to his environment, saw the boom falling towards him and shoved a co-worker out of the way, probably saving his life. The end of the boom just hit Joe’s hardhat, shooting him out of the way like a watermellon seed. The fellow who got shoved out of the way had the end of the boom land on his boot, losing several toes.

As you’ve probably read, another crane fell in NYC, with the boom and cab crashing into an apartment building below. This was the second crane collapse in three months, killing two construction workers. Now 26 construction workers have died on jobsites in NYC in the past year. The mayor responded by hiring 20 more engineers to inspect all the cranes working in the city. Do you think this was a reasonable response?