Five construction workers were injured in a frightening construction accident on Tuesday afternoon at an Inwood work site. According to news reports, three workers were seriously injured and two suffered mild injuries when the crane on a boom truck collapsed. Thankfully no life-threatening injuries were sustained.  At approximately 2:25 p.m. on January 9, 2024, the NYPD and FDNY were called to a construction site at 3880 9th Avenue responding to reports of a crane collapse. Upon arrival at the scene, they learned that the accident involved a knuckle boom truck with a built-in cr ..read more

At Block O’Toole & Murphy, we take great pride in the remarkable contributions our attorneys make to the greater legal community. On the evening of November 20, 2023, legal professionals gathered at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian for the New York State Trial Lawyers Association’s (NYSTLA) inaugural Fall Judicial Gala, an event held to honor newly elected members of the bench. BOM Partner David Scher, who currently serves as NYSTLA’s President, led the event’s planning committee alongside NYSTLA President-Elect Victoria Wickman. At the event, Mr. Scher proudly intro ..read more

For passengers aboard a Parkchester-bound BxM6 bus, the evening of August 14, 2023 was no ordinary Monday in New York City. Around 8:30 PM at the corner of Madison Avenue and East 48th Street, the MTA vehicle collided with an active bucket truck. The impact of the crash caused three of the bus’s windows to shatter completely, covering the streets in a blanket of glittering glass. Unfortunately, the glass confetti also sprayed straphangers. Eight people, including the construction worker who was operating the bucket truck and the MTA bus driver, suffered injuries as a result. The victims of the ..read more

In downtown White Plains, a dramatic scene unfolded in the summer sky: On Wednesday, August 9, an injured construction worker descended through the air, dangling from a safety harness. ABC reports that the worker fell during his shift on a crane boom, sustaining a serious compound fracture to his tibia and fibula. This painful and incapacitating injury left him unable to climb down from the crane as usual. A White Plains technical rescue team, firefighters, and police officials cooperated to extract the worker from the crane, located high above the city. The hour-long rescue mission required t ..read more

On Wednesday, July 26 just before 7:30 A.M., bystanders on Manhattan’s West Side beheld a terrifying sight: a crane on fire, forty-five stories high, issuing a thick black rope of smoke into the sky. The crane, holding a construction worker, was stationed at 550 10th Avenue, a high rise building that’s intended to be a 54-story, mixed-use edifice, between West 41st and 42nd Streets—mere blocks from historic Times Square. Officials reported to both the New York Post and ABC 7 that the crane operator attempted unsuccessfully to extinguish the fire on his own and was, thankfully, able to evacuate ..read more

On Sunday night, a devastating bus accident left at least 10 people with injuries in the Bronx neighborhood of West Farms. ABC reports that around 7:15 p.m., a black minivan violently rear-ended an MTA bus at the intersection of East 180th Street and Crotona Parkway. One witness told CBS that the van appeared to be going 80-95 miles per hour before the impact. Initial reports have not reached a consensus on the exact order of events following (and preceding) the crash; a complete investigation is underway. However, multiple sources confirm that the collision caused the van’s engine to catch on ..read more

On Tuesday, July 18 at 9:45 AM, a man working on a six-story new residential building project on Flushing Avenue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, was trapped up to his waist under thousands of pounds of dirt that collapsed, stopping at least three feet high. According to the New York City Department of Buildings (DOB), the residential building project is in its excavation phase, and the plumber was working to dig out at least eight feet of soil in order to access a foundation wall where he needed to install piping. While the plumber underwent his work in the trench, the soil collapsed, solidly pinni ..read more

On July 11, 2023 shortly after 11:00 AM, the Fire Department of Long Beach, NY was notified that a male construction worker fell from scaffolding at 100 E Broadway, located at the intersection of East Broadway and Riverside Boulevard. The man, who fell approximately 12 feet, was found lying on the ground, semiconscious, when Engine 2343, Ambulance 2321, and the Long Beach Police Department and Building Department arrived on the scene. While broken limbs could not be immediately identified, according to a city spokesperson, the fall victim was transported to the Mount Sinai South Nassau Emergen ..read more

On the morning of Thursday, July 13, two workers at a construction site in Orchard Beach were seriously injured by a large piece of concrete that fell onto them after a ceiling collapsed. Local reports state that the accident took place around 11 a.m. According to New York City Fire Department (FDNY) chief Kenneth Scanlon, fire officials were called to the scene at Orchard Beach Pavilion, located in the Bronx’s Pelham Bay Park. They found the workers trapped underneath the concrete slab, which measured approximately 15 feet by 20 feet. Due to the severity of this event, 15 FDNY units responde ..read more

Early on the morning of July 12, 2023, firefighters were called to 550 Madison Avenue after a gas tank exploded on the 34th floor of the landmark building, seriously injuring two construction workers. The two workers were brought to local hospitals and are reportedly in serious, but stable, condition. According to news reports, at around 6:30 a.m., the two workers were using a Sawzall cutting tool to cut a padlock on a gang box containing fuel tanks used for welding and cutting tools. Sparks from the blade of the cutting tool ignited flammable gas that was leaking from an acetylene tank, causi ..read more