NYPD Sergeants' Union Members Rush In After Crane Collapse

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- In times of trouble and chaos, there are always brave souls who run into the action rather than away.

As CBS2's Meg Baker reported, there were many such people who sprang to action Friday morning when a crane collapsed in Tribeca – leaving one person dead and three others injured.

Paul Capotosto, treasurer of the NYPD's Sergeants' Benevolent Association, was looking out his office window at his car parked on Worth Street Friday afternoon. The car was demolished by the crane.

"This morning when I parked outside, I looked up and I thought to myself, 'Should I move my car?' I said, 'No, it'll be fine out here – it'll be fine.' I came inside," Capotosto said. "But when we felt rumble and felt the building shake, I knew automatically what it was."

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Union secretary Vincent Vallelong said they felt the impact as the crane tumbled.

"It sounded like those big dump trucks that come down street and hit a bump, and you hear that rattling," Vallelong said. "And it heard like three or four times, and then all of a sudden, it was a boom and it rocked the entire building."

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The sergeants, alongside vice president Bob Ganley, did not waste a second.

"First and foremost, we are public safety," Capotosto said. "We ran outside to see who we could help, how many were injured, if there was any more danger."

"Checking all the cars, because the crane was across the tops of the cars on the driver's side," Vallelong said.

They first came upon a man stuck in his parked car.

"We tried to pull the doors open, but it was impossible," Vallelong said.

"We started working on trying to get him out of the car, found a lady standing off to the side -- blood coming down her forehead. I asked her if she was OK. She was kind of dazed, and then we saw gentleman on street -- trying to get a covering," Capotosto said.

That gentleman was David Wichs, 38, who was killed instantly when the crane fell as he walked down Worth Street. He was believed to have been trying to cross the street when the crane knocked him out.

"We're very lucky that there was only one casualty," Ganley said.

Traffic was shut down on the block when the crane came down, and the sergeants that own the cars that were crushed by the impact said if it traffic had not been shut down, there would have been far more casualties.

"Every day when we come to work, this block is a traffic nightmare," Vallelong said.

Ganley said normally on weekday mornings, the block of Worth Street where the crane fell is full of kids going to school. They thanked the snow for the delay.