Scaffolding Deaths Are Claiming New York’s Immigrant Workers in an Industry Lacking Accountability

Juan Chonillo, a 44-year-old Ecuadorian immigrant, was working on a luxury Manhattan skyscraper in September 2017 when he plummeted 29 stories from a scaffold to his death.

The scaffolding platform holding Chonillo got stuck while being moved by a crane. After he released his harness to try and unjam the platform, the scaffold jolted, causing him to fall to another scaffold just above the sidewalk at 161 Maiden Lane. In 2018, a year after his death, SSC High Rise, a subcontractor working on the site under general contractor Pizzarotti, pleaded guilty to manslaughter....