Brooklyn sidewalk shed saves life

BROOKLYN HEIGHTS, Brooklyn (PIX11) — There is new scrutiny on the more than nine thousand sidewalk sheds that dot the city, as one of them did what it was supposed to and prevented a possible tragedy.

A large piece of stone fell off the facade of a 37-story building Wednesday at 16 Court Street.

Pictures from the NYC Department of Buildings show the sidewalk shed and scaffolding kept the stone from coming down onto the sidewalk. Still, broken bits of the shed did send one person to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

There are more than 9,100 busy sidewalk sheds around the city, according to the DOB, down from the peak of more than 11,300 during the summer of 2020.

The city does not keep data on the number of times one has kept a piece of falling debris from hitting the ground.

In recent years, there have been several instances when the sheds have collapsed on people. However, according to the DOB, none of those instances have been fatal, as opposed to the four fatal partial building collapses that have killed people since May 2015.

Legislation to limit how long a sidewalk shed can stall during the pandemic.