Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark announced on Tuesday, May 2, that a mechanic has been charged with criminally negligent homicide of his 25-year-old apprentice co-worker, for failing to implement critical safety features, which led to an elevator collapse in a building in the Mt. Eden section of The Bronx in February 2021.

 

In the context of the announcement, Clark said, “The defendant, a mechanic, was working with the victim to upgrade an elevator inside a Bronx building. The defendant allegedly failed to comply with multiple safety protocols, and because of those faults the elevator car plunged six stories, killing his co-worker. If safety measures had been followed, the victim would still be alive today. The defendant was arraigned today on criminally negligent homicide.”

 

She added, “Coincidentally, this week is Construction Safety Week, which brings awareness to vital safety practices in the construction industry. Jobs in this field can be extremely dangerous, and workers must be protected. Regulations must be followed to prevent perilous situations and work-related deaths.”

 

New York City Department of Investigations (DOI) Commissioner Jocelyn Stauber also spoke about the case, saying, “A worker was fatally crushed by a free-falling elevator because his supervisor, an experienced mechanic, failed to follow the most basic safety protocols, as alleged in the indictment. This senseless tragedy was entirely preventable, and I thank District Attorney Clark for her commitment to hold accountable those who flout the City’s building code.”

 

Clark said Peter Milatz, 67, of Orange County, NY, was arraigned on Tuesday on one count of criminally negligent homicide before Bronx Supreme Court Justice George Villegas. He was given supervised release and is due back in court on June 8, 2023.

 

According to the investigation, on February 18, 2021, the victim, Joseph Rosa, 25, an apprentice mechanic, was working with Milatz, a senior mechanic who has since retired, on the modernization of an elevator inside a 6-story building located on 133rd Street East Clarke Place in Mt. Eden. At the time of the incident, officials said Milatz and Rosa were working on replacing the steel-wire ropes that ran between the elevator cabin and the elevator counterweight.

 

They said Milatz allegedly instructed Rosa to go to the pit at the bottom of the shaft while he worked on the sixth floor, where the elevator cabin was. Rosa secured the counterweight, a standard procedure, then used a small saw to cut through the ropes, at Milatz’s instruction. The elevator cabin plunged down the shaft and crushed Rosa.

 

According to the investigation, the defendant allegedly failed to comply with a procedure that required him to “hang” the elevator cabin, which suspends chains and/or engages the elevator’s brake. That procedure prevents the elevator from falling when the ropes are cut. Additionally, the defendant allegedly removed a critical safety feature called the governor – which triggers the braking system on all elevators – two weeks earlier in order to replace it with a new one. The replacement would not fit properly, but instead of reinstalling the old governor, Milatz allegedly continued to work on the elevator without the safety feature.

 

Norwood News recently reported that three building contractors were charged on April 12, in the first Bronx case to bring charges of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide, for a construction fatality which took place, as reported by Norwood News at the time, at 94 East 208th Street in Norwood in 2019.

 

The victim, a father and 46-year-old Ecuadorian immigrant worker, Segundo Manuel Huerta Mayancela, was crushed by 1,000 pounds of debris in what was described as an egregiously dangerous building site, a joint investigation by NYC Department of Investigation (DOI) and the Bronx District Attorney’s office found. Builders also allegedly falsified credentials/permits and flouted safety laws, according to the investigation.

 

We also previously reported on a separate elevator collapse at a construction site in the South Bronx in 2021, and the various resulting measures taken by government agencies, following the incident, to address safety, including DOB-imposed fines on non-compliant entities. In 2022, a female driver narrowly avoided death when a boom truck fell on her car from a Bedford Park construction site.

 

On April 27, New York City Mayor Eric Adams appointed Jimmy Oddo as the City’s commissioner for the Department of Buildings. “Our administration has always been laser-focused on finding the right people for the right jobs at the right time, and Jimmy Oddo and Molly Wasow Park [the new commissioner for New York City Department of Social Services] are exactly those people,” said the mayor at the time.

 

Adams continued, “Commissioner Oddo is an expert at building and running high-functioning teams, and he will bring the leadership the Department of Buildings needs to oversee our city’s buildings and protect New Yorkers who work in construction and walk on our streets.”

 

This latest elevator collapse case is being prosecuted by Senior Investigative Counsel James Goward, under the supervision of Denise Kodjo, deputy chief of the  Investigations Division, and Wanda Perez-Maldonado, chief of the Investigations Division. Clark thanked Frank Chiara, chief of BXDA Detective Investigators, and Trial Preparation Assistant J’Roma Parker.

 

She also thanked NYC Department of Investigations Confidential Investigator James Ferris, under the supervision of Assistant Inspector General Rob Miller, Deputy Inspector General Ed Zinser, Senior Inspector General Greg Cho, Deputy Commissioner/Chief of Investigations Dominick Zarrella, First Deputy Commissioner Daniel G. Cort, and NYC Department of Buildings Chief Inspector Luis Vazquez.

 

A person charged with a crime is deemed innocent unless and until convicted in a court of law.