Deadly NYC crane collapse under review

NEW YORK -- Officials are working to determine why a huge construction crane that was being lowered during strong winds came crashing down onto a street, killing a pedestrian and crushing a row of parked cars. Three other people were hurt by debris, two of them seriously.

But city officials said it could have been much worse.

"The fact is this is a very, very sad incident," Mayor Bill de Blasio said. "We've lost a life, but if you go out there on the street as I did and see what happened here, thank God it was not worse."

The mobile crane's boom landed across an intersection, smashed several car roofs and stretched much of a block after the accident at a historic building in lower Manhattan about 10 blocks north of the World Trade Center.

Wall Street worker David Wichs was killed in the collapse. He was a mathematical whiz who worked at a computerized trading firm, his family said. Born in Prague, he had immigrated to the United States as a teenager and graduated from Harvard University, said his sister-in-law, Lisa Guttman.

Officials have not yet determined why the crane fell.