Construction worker killed in Tel Aviv crane collapse

A 40-year-old construction worker was killed in Tel Aviv on Monday after he was entangled in electric wires that were knocked down by a crane that tipped over, the Magen David Adom ambulance service said.

According to witnesses, the man got entwined in the wires after the crane cab he was standing in hit utility poles on Reines Street, which was subsequently blocked off by police.

Medical personnel were able to reach the man after the electricity on the street was cut off, but they eventually declared him dead at the scene.

Construction site accidents are common in Israel, with watchdog groups complaining of little oversight and dangerous working conditions.

According to the Histadrut labor federation, 29 construction workers have died on the job since the beginning of the year.

Last month, two people were killed and six were wounded in a scaffolding collapse at a construction site in Ramat Gan.

In mid-February, a man was killed when he fell from scaffolding that collapsed on the eighth floor of a building site in the coastal city of Netanya. A week earlier, two construction workers were killed in Ashdod when a wall collapsed on them during electric cable infrastructure work.