NEW YORK, Feb. 23 (UPI) -- The owner of a crane that killed two construction workers when it collapsed went on trial this week in New York.
James Lomma faces up to 15 years in prison if he is convicted of two counts of manslaughter, the New York Daily News reported. While prosecutors say Lomma took shortcuts because repairing the crane would have lost him money, defense lawyers say the collapse on East 91st Street in Manhattan in 2008 was a tragic accident.
Donald C. Leo, 30, and Ramadan Kurtaj, 27, died when the crane's cab fell 200 feet.
Leo's father, Donald R. Leo, testified Wednesday. Leo, a retired firefighter who had become a construction worker, said he was working at another site when he got word his son had been hurt.
He described a frantic trip uptown and said he continued to talk to his son while he was being extracted from the wreckage even though he was probably already dead.
The elder Leo operated the same crane a few weeks before the crash. Under cross-examination, he acknowledged he had no problems with it.
