“The construction crane stood at least 19 stories high and had been attached at various points to the side of a half-built apartment tower. The crane was scheduled to be extended Saturday so workers could start work on a new level of the planned 43-story building, said an owner of the company that manages the construction site.

A piece of steel fell and sheared off one of the ties holding it to the building, causing it to detach and topple, said Stephen Kaplan, an owner of the Reliance Construction Group.

“It was an absolute freak accident,” he said. “All the piece of steel had to do was fall slightly left or right, and nothing would have happened.”

                                                      ………….news story, March 14, 2008 

I first heard about this happening over 20 years ago.   A good friend of mine from South Dakota was visiting NYC, and was stuck in traffic in Manhattan.  As the cab turned a corner, up ahead was the cause of the traffic jam,  another crane had somehow fallen off a building, what is it with these cranes?

The cabbie said, “F##*ing Cranes!”  Obviously, this happens a lot.