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Posted: Tuesday, 03 June 2008 1:11PM

Crane Operator Laid to Rest on Staten Island



NEW YORK (1010 WINS/AP)  -- A funeral was held on Staten Island Tuesday morning for Donald Leo Jr. a 30-year-old crane operator who was killed last Friday when part of the crane he was operating snapped and collapsed on Manhattan's Upper East Side.

Image Gallery: Photos from the Funeral | Crane Collapse

Leo, who was set to marry his fiancee Janine Belcastro in 2 weeks, was laid to rest at Our Lady Queen of Peace Church.

1010 WINS AUDIO: Steve Sandberg reports

The crane operators were building a new condo tower on East 91st Street, forty blocks north of where a crane collapse killed seven people on March 15.

The latest collapse happened when the cab of a 200-foot crane popped off its mast and scraped the balconies off the northeast corner of an apartment building across the street.

Another worker, Ramadan Kurtaj 27 (pictured, right, Leo left) died in the collapse while a third construction worker, Simeon Alexis, 32, was seriously injured. One pedestrian was treated for minor injuries.

Meanwhile, tenants of the East 91st Street apartment damaged in the collapse are still waiting to go home and hope that it will happen sometime Tuesday.

As the investigation into the deadly collapse continues, there are reports that documents have been taken from the crane company's offices that allegedly acknowledge the machine's turntable was a rebuilt version of one that had a crack in a steel part.

Department of Buildings records said officials halted work at the Upper East Side site after the crane failed ``load tests'' on April 22 and 23. However, the crane passed another test the next day. No violations had been issued in connection with the crane.

Department records show several neighborhood complaints about cranes at the site in recent weeks. At least two callers had expressed concerns that crane parts extended past safety barriers. One complained that workers were hoisting heavy metal and concrete over the heads of pedestrians. 

Inspectors found most of the concerns were unwarranted, and Buildings Department officials had looked at the crane three times this month, the last time on Thursday. 

Photo from 1010 WINS' Steve Sandberg


(TM & Copyright 2008 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO & EYE Logo TM & Copyright 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Inthe interest of timeliness, this story may contain occasional typographical errors.)
 
 
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