UPDATED, 1:45 p.m., March 18: A 37-year-old woman was fatally struck by a piece of plywood blown from the Greenwich Lane, the Rudin family and Global Holdings’ condominium conversion of the former St. Vincent’s Hospital in the West Village.
Tina Nguyen, an agent at real estate brokerage Keller Williams, was walking on the sidewalk and talking on her cell phone around 5:50 p.m. Tuesday when the incident occurred. The winds of up to 38 miles per hour shoved her into a wall at a parking garage at 175 West 12th Street. She died at Bellevue Hospital from head trauma.
“What happened is tragic and devastating,” Bill and Eric Rudin said in a statement on behalf of the Rudin and Ofer families. “We extend our deepest condolences to the family.”
A representative for Turner Construction Company, which is handling construction at the Greenwich Lane, said that “we are deeply saddened by the death of a pedestrian who was walking near the construction site on West 12th Street. Our thoughts and prayers are with her family during this very difficult time.”
“Safety on and around our job sites is always our number one priority,” the spokesperson added. “We are conducting an investigation into the circumstances of the incident. We are also fully cooperating with investigations by the Department of Buildings and other agencies looking into this incident.”
In 2013, the DOB found that the scaffold at the 17th floor of one of the buildings was improperly connected, thus “endangering workers and the public,” according to the New York Daily News, which first reported last night’s accident. The contractors have since resolved that violation.
The developers are at work on a 10-building residential complex, with five of the properties townhouses. A $45 million penthouse, the priciest unit at the project, entered contract last week, as The Real Deal reported.