Prison time possible for business owner for two workplace fatalities
March 12, 2010 by Fred HosierPosted in: cost of safety, criminal charges, Fatality, In this week's e-newsletter, Latest News & Views
PDF Increasingly, officials are seeking criminal charges against business owners and managers in connection with workplace fatalities. Now, two men face up to 15 years in prison in connection with a crane collapse in New York City.
James Lomma, owner of New York Crane, and his former mechanic, Tibor Varganyi, have pleaded not guilty to second-degree manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and reckless endangerment charges in the deaths of two workers on May 30, 2008.
A weld on a crane’s turntable, that officials say New York Crane had done on the cheap in China, cracked apart, sending the machine’s boom and car plummeting 20 stories to the ground with the driver still in it. The operator and another worker on the ground were killed. A third worker was seriously injured.
The Manhattan District Attorney said Lomma was “motivated by profit,” to make the crane repair on the cheap using a Chinese company.
A lawyer for Lomma’s crane company said they’d fight the charges because no fewer than seven inspectors signed off on the refurbished crane part.
But prosecutors say even the Chinese company warned it wasn’t equipped to do the repair. An e-mail from the company says, “We are afraid the weld we had it not good.”
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Tags: crane collapse, criminal charges, prison
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March 12th, 2010 at 5:15 pm
An e-mail from the company? Who stated this? Was it an officer of the company? What kind of reporting is that? Talk directly to an officer and find out if they told the crane company that they would not guarantee the crane weld.
March 16th, 2010 at 8:20 am
Why talk directly to someone isn’t an e-mail good enough? You do understand that the company is the one making the money right? So the next logical step is blame the company and let the them prove their not at fault. This is America the land of the free and home of the guilty until proven innocent so I can win the work comp lotto.
I will say this again Judges need to be ELECTED by the people for the people. Then maybe they will retain some common sense knowing that their job may be on the line like everyone elses when they make poor decisions.
March 16th, 2010 at 10:10 am
Let’s just all go to prison. Like Margaret Thatcher said, “Socialism is a great idea till you run out of other peoples’ money”, or they all end up in jail. I think the state of NY should be sued.
March 16th, 2010 at 11:58 am
Judges in NYC ARE elected. And a lot of them are total party hacks, so that is no guarentee. The issue here is not excessive judgements, but criminal liability. If the allegations prove to be true it doesn’t look good. Why don’t you guys think for a minute before you spill out?
March 16th, 2010 at 12:39 pm
Maybe the 7 inspectors should be held Liable for signing off on the work? It appears that if in fact the company had the part inspected 7 different times before it was used they made every effort to ensure it was properly done. It should not matter where in the world the job was done it should matter what effort was done to make sure the job was done right!
March 16th, 2010 at 4:04 pm
I want to know what kind of “inspectors” these were, and exactly what kind of inspection they did. A weld is a weld to an untrained eye. Stands to reason that if this weld was so crucial that they should have had it inspected a little more.
As for outsourcing the job to China, and then being told by the company that they’re worried about the weld…yeah, I’m afraid they’re liable. Sounds like another case of a company trying to take the cheap way out and it costing others.
March 16th, 2010 at 4:27 pm
So the common belief is that the Japanese make the best cars but suck at welding?!!! Just a little while ago I busted my knee on the sharp edge of my desk…..I can’t wait to blame some German thousand of miles away who can’t seem to round the edges!!
March 17th, 2010 at 10:09 am
In all that I have read and reviewed on this case this was a critical weld, meaning if not done correctly and failed it could cause catastrophic failure to people, property, process, and the environment. The owner, and in business. The first duty of business is to survive. The next thing they needed to do is prevent loss. In this case, regardless if the Chinese companies welders and process were certified, then, the owner should have had a certified inspection and inspector to inspect and X-Ray the weld prior to putting the crane back into service verifying it was performed to the crane manufactures reqirements. Good Loss Control states that manufacture requirements rules on all maintenance, replacement, and repairs especially, on critical parts and especially, when they are done in China.
March 23rd, 2010 at 9:23 am
A lot of times inspectors don’t even look at the items in question, they get a stack of papers to sign and just sign them off. The contracting company might have several inspectors they use and just send the paperwork in, it gets signed and sent back. They get away with it until something goes wrong.
And this story, Ladies and Gentlemen, is what happens when you ASSUME.
March 23rd, 2010 at 9:26 am
Micheal, it was a Chinese company that did the welding, not Japanese. Where did you see Japanese. Japanese are perfectionists, they would have done the job right or faced shame to themselves, their families and their families for the next 1000 generations.
March 23rd, 2010 at 10:59 am
You’re absolutely right Robert…I keep forgeting there is a difference between the two! Damn wide-eyed Westerners!!
March 23rd, 2010 at 11:23 am
I feel this is a tragedy indeed. Having the Chinese do the work is coming practice here in America and because there was a failure in the cheep labor provided in this particular incident then this business owner is facing criminal prosecution. I know you can’t put a price value on human life but the owner isn’t the one who should be on trial. Or economy and the desire or people have to take short cuts in industries to stay competitive is where the blame rests. If you want to say Chinese aren’t by law able to make crucial repairs in general and the owner went against that there should be liability. Were as he is following suit in common business practices his company had 7 inspectors check the crane and turned up nothing allowed it to be put in service what more can a company do. I feel this has already gone to far let the company give the money they would spend on court fees and defense to the family with the loss. Then concentrate the efforts to change laws on something of this sort. We already as a society kick the people how need the help the most and empty there pockets every chance we get. There should be laws protecting these people from the wolves of business today.
March 23rd, 2010 at 1:42 pm
From the NY Post article:
“But prosecutors counter that emails show even the Chinese company warned it was not equipped to do the weld — and Lomma and his mechanic made a conscious decision to disregard that warning.
“In the crane it is an important part,” a RTR official wrote Varganyi of the part in question in one email. “And we are afraid the weld … we had is not good, because normally we didn’t do it like that. And honest speaking [sic] we don’t have confidence on this welding.”
Read the DA’s press release for more: http://www.manhattanda.org/whatsnew/press/2010-03-08.shtml#
NY Crane has a terrible safety history. As a NYC resident I need to know that the cranes I walk under or work with are maintained to the highest standards. Its not about money. If the allegations prove out I want these guys to do time. Every business owner who spends the money to do things right should feel the same way.
March 23rd, 2010 at 3:41 pm
What I don’t understand is how did a Chinese company get involved in this in the first place. Did they fly a welder from China to New York City? I would think the plane ticket and room and board alone would be enough to have just hired a local company. It’s not like it would cast that much in the first place.
Regardless of cost, it was dumb on the contracting company’s part. As far as I’m concerned it was dumb both business wise and practical wise. I’m have right now, a job contracted to a welding shop in New York and costs aren’t that much and infact better then our costs here in California.
March 23rd, 2010 at 3:43 pm
I didn’t proof read that last post of mine. I’ve noticed some spelling and grammatical errors in my statement and for that I appologize to anyone that might be having trouble reading it.