Lauryn Petrie was just getting her life together after a history of abuse and drugs when the pandemic locked down her dreams of stand-up comedy fame. She took her sense of humor to the morgue instead.
Death on the Job
Posted inSubway
Subway Train Operator Haunted by Two Deaths on the Job in One Week. MTA and Union Officials Say the Tragedies Point to a Larger Crisis
Jerome Golden had operated subway trains for 17 years without ever being involved in a deadly accident. “A lot of people I know, it’s happened to them,” Golden said. “But never to me.” But in the course of a single week last month, the veteran motorman suffered dual tragedies — fatally striking two women, the […]
Posted inCoronavirus
‘A Bad Dream’: New York Children Who’ve Lost Parents to COVID-19 Face Hardships Beyond Grief
Catherine Abear has one family photo of the four of them: herself, her husband Ray, and their 2-year-old son and then 1-month daughter, all together, taken on Christmas Eve. Three months later, COVID moved Ray into the basement of their Jamaica, Queens, house, to quarantine. He was there for nine days, and then for four […]
Posted inTransit
MTA Promises Families of Workers Lost to COVID-19 $500K
Need to know more about coronavirus in New York? Sign up for THE CITY’s daily morning newsletter. After being rocked by 59 worker deaths from coronavirus, the MTA has agreed to provide next of kin with a $500,000 lump-sum payment. That’s 10 times the amount usually paid to the families of New York City Transit […]
Posted inDeath on the Job
Construction Overseers Charged With Manslaughter in Death of Luis Sánchez Almonte
Additional reporting by Greg B. Smith Sign up for “THE CITY Scoop,” our daily newsletter where we send you stories like this first thing in the morning. A construction company operator, foreperson and engineer responsible for the Sunset Park construction site where laborer Luis Sánchez Almonte was crushed to death by debris in September 2018 […]
Posted inWorker Safety
One-Third of Construction Deaths Logged by Feds Go Uncounted by City
Construction laborer Carlos Gabrielli died on the job, after cutting through a city sewer in a Staten Island road. The 50-year-old father of three was working from a hole too small to give him enough room to maneuver a 14-inch rapid-cut saw, according to his family’s lawyer. The saw kicked back and slashed Gabrielli’s unprotected […]
Posted inDeath on the Job
Construction Deaths Go Unreported as Building Owners Ignore Law
A least a dozen construction workers died on the job in New York City last year — but building owners and contractors reported only a single fatality, THE CITY has learned. A 2017 city law requires building owners or contractors to report all deaths and injuries on their construction sites to the Department of Buildings. […]
Posted inPeople
Developers Donate Big to Queens DA Candidate Who Vows Construction Crackdown
When Queens Borough President Melinda Katz announced her candidacy for district attorney in December, she sought to stand out as an advocate for workers injured or ripped off on the job – especially on construction sites. “Developers and construction companies will be held accountable if they fail to follow the law and keep their workers […]
Posted inDeath on the Job
The Price of a Laborer’s Life: A $63,647 Fine
Additional reporting by Greg B. Smith On Sept. 12, as the remnants of Hurricane Florence pounded Brooklyn, a portion of a brick retaining wall roughly 30 feet high and about 20 feet wide collapsed onto a construction worker toiling in a trench in Sunset Park. It took rescue crews more than 28 hours to recover […]