Engineering News Record of New York Interviews William Rapetti

Tower Crane in Venice, Italy

Engineering News Record (ENR) of New York interviewed William Rapetti after his acquittal of manslaughter charges stemming from the deadly collapse of a 200-foot tower crane in Manhattan in 2008.  The interview was well done and provides the reader with a glimpse of the tenacity and perserverance it takes to defend yourself against unfair charges.  In addition, it gives you a look at the process of when you are charged with manslaughter, and what a person and his family goes through when you become the target.  An very good read and the reporting was done very fairly.

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Crane Failure Case Heading to Court

Its amazing that the OSHA investigation found no violations.  However, the Manhattan DA found enough evidence to bring manslaughter charges against J. Lomma, T. Varganyi, JF Lomma Inc, and NY Crane.  Key quote from the article was "Equipment owners may be held personally liable—even if safety regulators in their official investigation are unable to find code violations."  Will the threat of criminal charges actually start CEOs thinking about safety first.

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