A worker replacing a billboard at Victoria’s Secret flagship store in Midtown Manhattan fell to his death after an MTA bus hit a boom lift, police sources said Monday.
Vladimir Cruz, 39, was in the bucket of the lift “protruding into the roadway” as he worked outside the store on Fifth Ave. near E. 51st St. around 9:35 p.m. Sunday, an NYPD spokesperson said.
An M1 bus with a 44-year-old driver at the wheel struck the lift, sending Cruz, who was replacing the store’s billboard, tumbling to the pavement below.
Cruz suffered head and body trauma and was rushed to Bellevue Hospital, where he later died.
The bus driver remained at the scene and was not immediately facing charges. No passengers on the bus were hurt, according to an MTA spokesperson.
Cruz lived in the Melrose section of the Bronx, police said.
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