All the fun of ridiculing Mayor Bloomberg’s (all-fall-down) Building Department has subsided as yet another Crane collapse killed two, injured one, and damaged nearby buildings on East 91st Street Friday. (See also the NY Daily News excellent team report.). Ironically, (can I still use that word?) Mr.Bloomberg’s Building Dept. had just eased-up stringent rules requiring crane movements to be supervised by a DOB inspector . Dead at the scene was Donald Leo, 30, crane operator of Staten Island, who was in the cab as it fell. Sewer worker Ramadan Kurtaj, 27, of the Bronx and Kosovo, died in the hospital and a third was gravely injured. (For more on the lives of the fallen here is Lisa W. Foderaro's well researched follow-up.) "Union carpenter Simeon Alexis survived a gash to the chest," Newsday reported He was released from the hospital Saturday.

Update: The Manhattan DA's office is said to be investigating a possible crime in the crane collapse premised on the reuse of the cracked rotating plate (see below). More updates at the end of the post.

This was, of course, not the first crane trouble at this site and – in case you forgotten—not the first fatalities from falling structures like cranes around NYC In response to criticism Mr. Bloomberg suggested that perhaps the crane’s steel was defective, that construction was a dangerous job, that it wasn’t the DOB which had fallen down on the job, but the Contractor and finally, that the situation was “unacceptable and intolerable” --without explaining what he didn’t accept and what he wouldn’t tolerate.

You may have thought that Mr. Bloomberg addressed this problem by hiring more inspectors a few weeks ago. ABC News interviewed a crane operator who offered a different and completely convincing scenario. He said the inspectors did not understand crane operation and safety. (If they did, he said, they’d be making a lot more money operating the cranes.) Do Not Miss his wonderful interview, courtesy of Gawker. In a development which tends to confirm that critique of building inspections, the Times reported Saturday that "bad welds" and a possibly cracked rotating plate were under suspicion as causes of the collapse. Defects like those would have been detected if inspectors had been present as the crane was being erected.

US Rep. Carolyn Maloney, who represents the area in which the crane feel, called for a Federal OSHA investigation – which some saw as a move boldly critical of Mr. Bloomberg (OSHA investigations are routine in workplace deaths). Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum and Council Member Bill di Blassio attacked DOB in their statements .

As I see it, Mr Bloomberg has no one left to fire. He used that trick last time when he fired then-Commissioner Lancaster, an otherwise able and loyal servant, who fell on her sword to protect the Mayor. The Department of Buildings accepted Mr. Bloomberg’s laissez-faire regulatory regime. It’s the Mayor policy that needs to change; which I am afraid is unlikely to happen until he is replaced. Maybe the Mayor will appoint a Commission to study the problem. Interestingly, Diane Cardwell writing in the NY Times notices, finally, that Mr. Bloomberg might properly bare some blame here.

The NY Times has a wonderful interactive graphic explaining the crane collapse . The Daily News also has good coverage here.

Newsday reports that $4 million will flow to the Buildings Dept. to hire 18-20 engineers for inspections.

I never thought I'd write a sentence like this but the NY Post has some useful team reporting here . It ledes with empty threats by the acting Building Commissioner sounding more like a substitute teacher: In an emotional two-hour meeting yesterday, the city's acting buildings commissioner warned the construction industry that "if there's any more crane accidents, he's shutting the whole city down," sources at the emergency summit said." More valuable, the Post found photos, witnesses and experienced crane operators all of which point to the cracked rotating plate as the cause. Paper appears to have been stuffed into the cracks to stop oil from leaking out. Loathe though I am to say it, go read the Post on this.

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