Construction work sites can be very dangerous places, especially in New York where many of the buildings reach high heights. Workers must use dangerous tools around structures that are often either incomplete or falling apart and in need of the repair being done on them. Scaffolding is used to hold workers and transport heavy material used at the construction site.

When scaffolding falls, it can cause serious damage to those unlucky enough to be on the structure at the time or to those standing below. Falling scaffolding was to blame for causing injury to 17 people in Harlem early Tuesday morning.

The scaffolding had been erected around an old five-story brick building on West 125th Street in Harlem. According to reports, work was being done on an elevator shaft when bricks came loose, falling on the scaffolding. The scaffolding collapsed at approximately 9:25 in the morning when the streets were filled with pedestrians and commuters.

Of the 17 people injured, eight of them had been riding on a city bus when the scaffolding collapsed and landed on the back end of the bus. A reporter for The New York World was riding on the bus at the time and related his experience. “I heard a falling sound of something collapsing toward the back, and the back of the bus filled up with smoke,” he said. “People were running from the back and screaming.”

The reporter talked to a young boy who “said that he thought he was going to die.” The fear of the young boy was by no means over exaggerated. Scaffolding accidents are considered very dangerous, often leaving families to find a way to survive after their primary income-earner is seriously injured or even loses their life in one of the accidents.

Source: The New York Times, “17 Injured as Scaffold Collapses Onto Bus in Harlem,” Andy Newman and Matt Flegenheimer, Sept. 20, 2011