NEW YORK (AP) -- A construction accident Monday at a Donald Trump hotel-condominium tower being built in Manhattan's trendy SoHo neighborhood sent a worker plummeting 40 stories to his death and injured three other people, authorities said.
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The worker died about 2 p.m. at the Trump SoHo complex, police said. The three other people, also construction workers, were taken to a hospital, two with serious injuries, one with minor injuries, a fire department spokesman said.
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Construction at the site is being overseen by Bovis Lend Lease, the main contractor handling the dismantling of a former bank building across from ground zero that caught fire in August, killing two firefighters.
Image Gallery: Trump SoHo Construction Accident
The Trump tower workers were using a crane while pouring concrete into forms atop the 42-story building when one or more of the forms collapsed onto the 40th floor, said the Department of Buildings, which issued an order to stop work at the site and at least four violations against the site's general contractor.
The site, the department said, wasn't in danger of collapsing further, and the crane was stabilized.
Lucy Harris works on the seventh floor of a building next to the Trump site. She said she heard debris hitting her building, went to a window and looked down at the space between the buildings.
"I looked down and saw the body of the person who fell covered in concrete,'' said Harris, adding that she had previously complained to the buildings department about falling debris. "It was clear from the way one of the legs was bent that the person was either dead or severely injured, so I called 911.''
She added: "It's upsetting that someone has to die.''
Department of Buildings inspectors were trying to determine the cause of the incident.
Trump's executive assistant, Rhona Graff, referred inquiries about the accident to Bovis Lend Lease, a global firm that has handled some of the city's biggest developments.
Bovis spokeswoman Mary Costello released a statement saying the company was conducting its own investigation with the concrete subcontractor while working with local authorities to determine the cause.
"Our hearts go out to the family of the deceased concrete worker, and our prayers are with the injured workers,'' the statement said.
Bovis Lend Lease oversaw the Time Warner Center, in Columbus Circle, and is working on the Sept. 11 memorial and a transit hub at ground zero among many other projects.
The planned Trump SoHo Hotel Condominium, billed on its Web site as "a 386,000-square-foot icon of downtown chic'' and scheduled to open in 2009, has been controversial since Trump announced it on his reality television show, "The Apprentice,'' in 2006.
Last year, preservationists opposed the building, and, earlier, workers discovered human bones at the site.
Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer said the site was issued two high-risk violations on Oct. 26, one for "operating a crane in an unsafe manner'' and the other for "failing to safeguard public property affected by construction operation.'' The city's Environmental Control Board was scheduled to hold a hearing on the pending violations Jan. 24, Stringer said.
"Why are we allowing this crane to operate when there's been no resolution to this violation?'' Stringer said. "I find that very troubling.''
After Monday's accident, the buildings department issued at least four violations to Bovis Lend Lease, including for failing to safeguard the public and property, maintain adequate housekeeping and provide a fire escape hatch and adequate fire extinguishers.
The department already had issued 11 violations, eight of them to Bovis, since workers started at the site in May 2007. Those violations included operating a crane in an unsafe manner and failing to close the sidewalk before hoisting loads above the sidewalk.
The buildings department also vacated the top two floors of two nearby buildings as a safety precaution. It said the floors will remain vacated and the department's stop-work order will remain in effect until Bovis Lend Lease makes the site safe.
Last summer, preservationists opposed the Trump SoHo, saying it would dwarf the surrounding 10- to 15-story structures. City officials rejected their request to revoke its permit.
The building's height is permitted under the zoning of the former parking lot where it is under construction. Residential use isn't permitted so the new tower must be packaged as a hotel and not as a condo building. But in a deal negotiated by city officials, the hotel rooms will be bought like condos.
Under the project's so-called restrictive declaration, no owner will be able to occupy a unit for a continuous period of more than 29 days in any 36-day period or for more than 120 days in a calendar year. But opponents said the rule would be unenforceable.
Also, in December 2006, the city temporarily halted excavation at the site after workers discovered human bones apparently from a 19th-century church graveyard. The medical examiner took custody of the bones until a decision is made about what to do with them.
At least 43 people died while working construction in New York in 2006, the deadliest year in at least a decade and the most recent for which such statistics were available, the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics said. The death toll was up 87 percent from 2005, when 23 people died.
Nationally, construction deaths in 2006 rose just 3 percent.
Photos by 1010 WINS' Juliet Papa
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