NY: City’s Top Crane Inspector Is Arrested

"this is what happens when u have someone making $50,000 in charge of handing out licenses worth millions to ventures worth billions."- Posted by atruh, in the comments

From The New York Times blog (6/6/08):

City’s Top Crane Inspector Is Arrested
By William K. Rashbaum

The city’s chief crane inspector was arrested on Friday and charged with taking bribes to approve cranes under his review and for taking money from crane operators who sought to ensure that they would pass the required licensing exam, an official involved in the case said.

James Delayo, the acting chief inspector for cranes and derricks at the city Department of Buildings, was in charge of overseeing the issuance of city licenses for crane operators. He is also facing charges that he provided a copy of the crane operator’s exam and the test answers to a crane company in exchange for $3,000, the official said.

Mr. Delayo, who is being prosecuted by the office of the Manhattan district attorney, Robert M. Morgenthau, surrendered this morning to investigators from the city’s Department of Investigation, the official said. The city investigators developed the case.

The charges against Mr. Delayo will likely include receiving an unlawful gratuity and offering a false instrument for filing, the official said, and come just a week after the city’s second fatal tower crane collapse in 10 weeks.

The accusations, however, do not involve the inspections of the large tower cranes, like those that collapsed last Friday and March 15, but smaller machines, known as Class C cranes, the official said.

Investigators believe that Mr. Delayo, since at least 2002, signed off on the annual inspection of between 20 and 30 Class C cranes without conducting any examination in exchange for “several hundred dollars” apiece, the official said.

Check out the blog, some of the comments are right on the money

It’s amazing that after every high-profile construction accident, they find someone to arrest. It’s sad to think that there is no justice in the low-profile construction deaths. Somehow, I don’t think they will find anyone culpable in the most recent death, which took place at a construction site on St. Marks Avenue in Crown Heights.
— Posted by harriet

Amazing reply, I hinted that in my article on the most recent NY disaster "Crane collapse in New York, 2 dead, 2 critical", and heres something I was speaking about recently:

this is what happens when u have someone making $50,000 in charge of handing out licenses worth millions to ventures worth billions.
— Posted by atruh

*Image by Sheldon at Picasaweb
Big thanks to Chuck at UBCNewsroom for pointing out the video