New York construction worker falls to death at NYU project

A construction worker employed in the facade project on a New York University building in Greenwich Village fell to his death from a sixth-floor scaffolding, according to police. As in many falls from heights, the injuries from the fall proved fatal. He was pronounced dead at Bellevue Hospital.

The man, whose identity was not disclosed but who was believed to be in his 40s, reportedly slipped on the scaffolding and crashed down onto the rooftop of a building adjacent to the NYU property. The scaffolding had been set up for work on the facade of the university's Language and Literature Building. The building where he landed on the rooftop is adjacent to the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Film Center, another NYU property.

NYU released a statement saying that it had shut down the construction site, stopping all work on the building's facade in order to ensure that the school's contractors were complying with safety rules. A representative for the university said that NYU prided itself on its safety record and would cooperate with any government probe into the accident. The school's website said that repairs were originally scheduled to be done by Oct. 1, 2013, but had been extended through December.