10.12.2007

Window cleaners fall 47 storeys

One window cleaner was killed while another, his elder brother, is seriously injured in hospital after the two plunged from the 47th floor of an apartment block on East 66th Street in New York on Friday.

Edgar Moreno, 30, who died and his brother, Alcides Moreno, 37had just stepped into a permanent window cleaning cradle which had previously been out of action awaiting repairs.

The two had apparently expressed concern over the state of the platform, but their employer, City Wide Window Cleaning of Queens, had told them that the cradle had been repaired and was safe to use.
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The tower from which the men fell

Local reports say that neither of the two were wearing a harness, whether they would have been of any help to them, depending on where they woudl have anchored to. Edgar fell onto a fence and died immediatley while Alcides held onto the falling platform which may well have cushioned his fall.

Solow Management Corp., the building's owner, issued a statement Friday extending sympathy to the workers' family and said it was cooperating with the investigation. The two men had both worked on the buildings windows for the past three years.