A woman and child walking on the sidewalk in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn suffered serious injuries when the rolling security gate of a storefront business fell on them.
The 16-foot long roll down security gate mounted on the exterior wall of a local business broke free from the building on Thursday afternoon, falling on a nanny and a 5-year-old boy in her care who were walking on the sidewalk in front of the business, according to the New York Daily News.
The incident occurred about 4:00 pm outside of the 5th Avenue Cat Clinic at 225 5th Avenue.
Witnesses told CBS New York that the nanny, a woman in her 50s, suffered a laceration injury to her head. The falling gate broke the leg of the child she was babysitting. The distraught mother of the boy ran to the scene shortly after the incident occurred. Both the nanny and boy were transported to Lutheran Medical Center.
An inspection by the New York City Department of Buildings found the welds securing the gate had failed. Officials said age of the security gate and wear from years of rain and salt likely caused the failure.
“It is not my responsibility to inspect that gate,” said a representative of 4G Realty LLC, the owner of the building. “It is the responsibility of the store owner.”
However according to the Buildings Department, maintenance of exterior security gates is the building owner’s responsibility and the agency issued a violation to 4G Realty LLC for failing to maintain the building.
Because security gates such as this are considered cosmetic, they require no permitting or inspection by the Buildings Department.
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