Bungled Maneuver in Bronx Kills Construction Worker

An industrial air conditioner plunged from a crane at Bronx-Lebanon Hospital on Tuesday, killing a construction worker. The horribly bungled maneuver began when workers used a crane to lift the flatbed carrying a huge chiller. The crew planned to hitch the flatbed to a truck cab but apparently failed to secure the cooling unit, according to DOB investigators. The machine toppled off the truck - crushing a 38-year-old man guiding the crane operator at the Bronx construction site.

According to a police, a truck-mounted crane was lifting the industrial, trailer-sized unit when the chain snapped, sending it crashing onto the worker. The machinery dropped several feet, clipping the edge of the trailer and flipping over onto its side on the sidewalk.

It took nearly an hour for first responders to lift the heavy machine off the trapped man.

The 38-year-old man, identified as Tristan Mananghaya of Jersey City, died at Bronx Lebanon Hospital shortly after the 11 a.m. incident. He had been working with a private company that was removing the chilling unit, which sat near the sidewalk of the East 173 Street hospital.

It is not clear which of the two companies involved is responsible for the accident, in which Tristan Mananghaya was brutally crushed to death. Aggreko Corp. leased the chiller to the hospital, and C&L Towing of New Jersey was hired by Aggreko to deliver the massive machine, when it slid off the truck.

Both the Buildings Department and the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration were investigating the incident.