In Brooklyn, NY, bricks falling from a building killed an elderly woman while she was shoveling snow off the sidewalk.
According to The New York Daily News, 74-year-old Dale Singer died after bricks from her brownstone fell on her while she was outside clearing her sidewalk after a snowstorm hit the city. This accident occurred around 12:30 p.m. in the Sunset Park section of Brooklyn.
Singer was taken to a local hospital, Maimonides Medical Center, where she was initially listed in critical condition before succumbing to her injuries.
Her son, Wylie Singer, told the media outlet that he heard a sound and ran downstairs to see his mother unconscious.
“All I know is I heard a sound, the sound of the façade falling. I ran downstairs to see my mother at the bottom of the landing, unconscious, dead.”
People reported that the NYC Department of Buildings stated that forensic engineers issued a vacate order for the structure after a full inspection of the building. They gave the property owner a summons for failure to maintain the building and ordered them to hire a structural engineer and submit an engineer report to DOB on the status of the building.
A neighbor of the victim stated that she witnessed firefighters trying to save Singer.
“That big piece over the door was what hit her,” she said. “I feel so sorry for her. She was a lovely person. I don’t know how the face of the building came down like that.”
Dale’s husband also showed up at the scene after the incident and quickly left in a cab to be with his wife at the hospital.
It was not known if the heavy snow contributed to the falling of the façade or if it was an issue due to the structure of the building.
In a December 2023 New York Times article, Abi Aghayere, a civil engineering professor at Drexel University,
stated that he felt the city’s oversight of buildings was insufficient. He believes that regulators typically pay more attention to the building before and during construction or when an owner seeks permits. Once the permits are granted and the buildings are completed, Aghayere said, the onus to identify and fix problems is almost always on the owner, and that should make many New Yorkers worried.RELATED CONTENT: Deadly Building Collapse Kills Chicago Worker After Being Trapped Under Debris for 45 Minutes