“Despite being informed of this, the foreman, Mauricio Sánchez, used it along with a worker, Yonin Grijalva, to retrieve debris from a higher floor. The rope holding the elevator broke due to the extra weight, and the foreman and workers plunged down the shaft with it,” said spokeswoman Patrice O’Shaughnessy, using Mr. Pineda’s mother’s last name.
Jonathan Moran, an attorney representing both Mr. Pineda and the Sánchez estate, said that workers were never told not to use the elevator and there were no warning signs or fences indicating that it remained unoccupied. operational – an assertion supported by an OSHA inspection performed after the incident. He said the Bronx County District Attorney’s Office never interviewed Mr. Pineda, and described its investigation as “horribly superficial, one-sided and incomplete.”
Last month, after The Times asked the district attorney’s office and the city’s Department of Investigation why their investigation into the elevator collapse did not include speaking to the lone survivor, they said the investigation investigation is still ongoing. Days later, they interviewed Mr. Pineda.
OSHA ultimately cited the employer, KM Builders, for a number of workplace safety-related violations in general and the elevator collapse in particular, with fines totaling $48,370. The company, through its attorney, declined to comment. It did not pay the penalty.
Government agencies also cited Mr Madruga’s company, GDI Construction, again for repeated safety violations involving the death of a worker on the construction site, this time leading to a fine of nearly $125,000. .
And again, the Ministry of Construction has issued a shutdown order at 20 Bruckner. Again, it put pressure on GDI Construction to provide a safer workplace, directing the company to hire both full-time “safety compliance officers” and “site safety managers.” . The cease-and-desist order was lifted three months later.
A spokesperson for GDI Construction said the company has met and exceeded the city’s requirements, with additional staff on site to ensure that all “safety-related details” are addressed. He added, “Construction is inherently risky, and although safety measures, precautions and procedures have been put in place on this site, these unfortunate accidents have happened.”
