With the state investigating unsafe trash-hauling hoists at NYCHA developments, workers at one Manhattan project found a solution to the chronically malfunctioning devices: tape.
On Monday, workers at the Washington Houses in East Harlem pointed to silver tape wrapped around a hook holding up the rusty car used to haul trash from the basement to the street.
Several months ago, the car suddenly separated from the chain hauling it up, said a worker who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
“I was working outside gathering trash when it just fell on its own, all the way down,” the worker said. “I put some tape on it to reattach it, and it worked again. They never fixed it.”
Last week, a paper sign from the Housing Authority was suddenly taped to the device, stating, “Hoists must not be used until further notice.”
In a statement, NYCHA said that in March it took a series of steps to address the safety of its hoist systems.
“We immediately put all hoists across NYCHA’s properties out of service and performed a thorough assessment of all the equipment,” the statement said.
But on March 7, NYCHA caretaker Toni Jackson, 31, was found with her head and neck inside one of the jury-rigged contraptions at the Coney Island Houses.
The Daily News on Monday revealed 40 hoists at Coney Island and 16 other developments had been ordered shut down by the state Labor Department after Jackson’s death. Most NYCHA buildings use garbage ramps, not the hoists.
Labor Department spokesman Brian Keegan declined to discuss the matter Monday, stating only that the agency “is investigating the fatal accident involving a New York City Housing Authority worker. The department is unable to comment further as this is an active investigation.”
Sources said the department’s public employee safety and health division will likely issue its findings this week.
About a month after Jackson’s death, the medical examiner Monday finally declared that she died of natural causes related to heart arrhythmia.
Jackson’s sister Patricia noted when she viewed the body an hour after the accident, Toni Jackson’s face was covered with blood, and a doctor told her she’d been struck in the head.
“(The doctor) said I don’t know if her heart gave out but he said something hit her on the back of the head. Now I don’t know that caused her heart to go out or her heart was already going out,” the sister said.
NYCHA said its internal review “found no connection between the equipment and the loss of caretaker Toni Jackson.” Officials said the only visible injury was a laceration on her forehead, and her skull did not appear to be fractured.
NYCHA believes the injury on her forehead was a result of her falling forward into the steel crossbeam that surrounded the hoist cage as she was stricken. In addition, her hardhat was found within the hoist cage and it was intact, with no visible markings that would indicate that she was struck by the cage.
