Friday, May 8, 2015

WORKER KILLED AT MANHATTAN CONSTRUCTION SITE WHEN HE FELL DOWN AN ELEVATOR SHAFT AT THE RIU PLAZA TIMES SQUARE



MAY 5, 2015

A worker at a construction site for a luxury hotel in Midtown Manhattan fell down an elevator shaft on Tuesday, plunging hundreds of feet to his death, the police said.

The man, Christian Ginesi, 25, was working on the 24th floor of the Riu Plaza Times Square, which is being built at 301 West 46th Street, when he fell down the elevator shaft around 12:30 p.m.

His body was found in the cellar of the building.

Mr. Ginesi, who lived in Jersey City, was taken to Bellevue Hospital Center, where he was pronounced dead shortly before 2 p.m., the police said.

The cause of the accident is under investigation, according to the authorities, but there had been past problems at the site.

In July 2013, work on the 30-story, 300,000-square-foot hotel was ordered stopped after a complaint about an unsafe work environment. An inspection revealed a number of problems, including a failure to install rails around floor openings.

The property is owned by RIU Hotel & Resorts, based in Majorca. The builder is the Rinaldi Group, and a lawyer for it said the company was “incredibly saddened by this horrible accident, and our prayers are with the family.” The lawyer, Bradley Gerstman, said the company was cooperating with the authorities.