The death toll at city-construction sites more than tripled last year, to 21 from six the year before, a federal report revealed.
Building collapses and falls caused eight deaths each, four hard hats were killed by construction equipment or falling debris, and another worker was killed by an unspecified hazard, according to an Occupational Safety and Health Administration report.
Manhattan had the most fatalities with nine, followed by Brooklyn and Queens with four each, The Bronx with three, and Staten Island one.
It was the most construction fatalities in the city since 2008.
Juan Vicente Ruiz was one of them. He lost his life on March 22, 2012, while demolishing a Harlem warehouse to make way for a new Columbia University building. Ruiz, who was 69, was demolishing a wall with a sledgehammer when the ceiling suddenly buckled, burying him under tons of bricks and concrete.
The sudden spike in construction-site deaths coincides with an uptick in building projects. Fatalities were down in years when the recession led to mothballed jobs.
“The more activity you’ve got, the more problems you’re going to have,” said Henry Robbins, a real-estate expert with Yale Robbins Inc. “It’s like the more miles on your car, the greater likelihood of an accident.”
There were 21 total construction deaths between 2009 and 2011. But at the tail end of the housing bubble — from 2006 to 2008 — the number of deaths totalled 83, according to OSHA data.
The agency’s study also showed that 72 percent of deaths in 2012 occurred on nonunion work sites, with 28 percent occurring on union sites.
“Union-construction sites are inherently safer for workers than nonunion sites,” said Louis Coletti, president of the Building Trades Employers Association. “At the end of the day, the most important thing is getting our employees home to their families.”