In May of 2015, a man fell 24 stories and died at a Midtown Manhattan construction site. The incident took place inside of a hotel being constructed on West 46th Street just before 8th Avenue at 12:40 p.m. The person who died was a construction worker named Christian Genesis. The accident resulted in an official Class 1 violation against the subcontractor responsible for constructing the elevator where the accident occurred.
Christian Ginesi was hired as a construction worker by the general contractor the Rinaldi Group. He was specifically working through a subcontractor named G-Tech. His job was to help build an elevator in the 31-story building. The site is intended to be a hotel called the RIU Hotel Times Square. Ginesi and another construction worker were taking a lift up the unfinished elevator shaft. The lift failed as they passed the 24th floor. The person who was with Ginesi leaped from the lift to the 24th-floor landing. He did not sustain any serious injuries from the jump. Ginesi, however, was not able to make the jump in time and fell 24 stories to the bottom. He was rushed to Bellevue Hospital for treatment but died there just 40 minutes later.
The general contracting company overseeing construction actually had a history of problems and accidents before this incident. Another construction worker had fallen just over three stories back in 2013. Regular inspections by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, also found a number of safety violations such as a lack of railings around areas where there are unfinished drop-offs and insufficient training for construction workers. Alternately, however, most of the companies and workers who have been involved with the Rinaldi Group have stated that the general contractor generally does a good job and is a responsible business when performing large construction projects.
Christian Ginesi was actually a veteran of the United States Air Force. He served in the Air Force for five years and even completed a few tours in countries in the Middle East. He had mentioned to friends that he was very concerned about the work he was doing in the elevator shaft. Ginesi was employed by the contractors for just a month before the accident occurred. He seemed to be particularly concerned about the lack of railings and safety equipment while he was working high above the streets of Midtown Manhattan.
The legal ramifications of the accident are still not known. The lack of safety training, safety precautions, and other issues mean that family members of Christian Ginesi could potentially file a wrongful death suit against the contractor or subcontractor. An attorney could try to argue negligence at the worksite. A potential complication is that there were no violations issued for the actual elevator shaft where the accident took place
