The hoped-for progress in New York City construction safety is coming too late for laborer Jose Fortina Armenta Hernandez. At 8:37 a.m. on May 27, 2021, while jackhammering a roof section on a Brooklyn building, the section on which Armenta stood gave way and he fell 60 ft. When last year his family sent his body from New York City to Mexico to be buried, they used a GoFundMe page to raise money for the laborer's funeral.
His death came at a time when New York City seemed to be turning a statistical corner as far as cutting annual fatal construction accidents, and a new safety law set to be signed by N.Y. Gov. Kathy Hochul may bring more progress.