A man and a woman walking on Howard Street in New York City suffered critical injury after being struck by a falling piece of fire escape last week.
The man, 58 year old Richard Marchhart from Long Island, died from his injuries a day after his hospitalization. He left behind a wife and three children: a daughter going to high school and two sons going to college.
The injured woman is a 24 year old artist who was on her way to a studio at the New York Academy of Art on Franklin Street.
The piece that fell from the seventh floor was a 150 pound step that came loose from the fire escape. The step gave way as a building inspector stood on it during a routine inspection required by the DOB. The inspector who was hired by a private contractor started to fall but thankfully she was able to pull herself up.
After the accident, the NYC Department of Buildings issued a violation for failure to safeguard the building. Later, scaffolds were erected on the sidewalk and a crew of inspectors were seen jumping on every step to see if they were holding.
Hopefully The DOB will learn from this incident and take measures to avoid tragic incidents like these in the future.