NEW YORK (1010 WINS) – A construction worker fell to his death at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Midtown on Thursday morning, officials said.
The fatal plunge happened around 9:30 a.m. at the landmark hotel at East 49th Street and Park Avenue, according to police.
The worker fell from an elevated position in a ballroom while working on restoration at the hotel. He was pronounced dead at a hospital and has not yet been identified.
The Waldorf Astoria closed in 2017 to undergo renovations and is expected to have a grand reopening this spring. The historic hotel began accepting renovations just last month.
The Department of Buildings determined the fall occurred while the worker was helping a licensed master electrician install a metal framing system for electrical wiring and equipment in a catwalk area inside the ceiling of a third-floor ballroom. While in the catwalk area, the worker walked on top of drywall ceiling and fell 40 feet, landing on the floor below.
DOB issued a full stop work order for the entire project.
“Construction safety inspectors are on scene at 301 Park Avenue, and they have issued an immediate Stop Work Order to the project while we start our investigation into today’s tragic fatal worker fall,” the department said.
“Falls are consistently the biggest threat to the safety of workers on the construction site, which is why contractors and site safety professionals are mandated to implement extensive safeguards to prevent them from happening,” DOB said. “We are committed to fully investigating the series of events that led to this fall and taking appropriate enforcement actions against the responsible parties if we find that any safety rules were ignored.”