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NEW YORK, NY March 17, 2008 —The accident left four construction workers dead and dozens injured.

WNYC's Arun Venugopal has more.

The city had issued 13 violations over the last couple years to the construction site and according to Mayor Michael Bloomberg, there's nothing unusual about that.

BLOOMBERG: The violations had nothing to do with this, and every large construction site has violations.

REPORTER: But local residents and officials say otherwise. A number of them had complained to the Department of Buildings about conditions at the site and say their concerns weren't taken seriously.

Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer says the city should be as aggressive about enforcing codes at construction sites as at restaurants.

STRINGER: They look in the bar area, they see three fruit flies and they close it for a weekend, they close the business for a week. Here you can see serious, hazardous violations and you get a ticket and you say we'll deal with this in a few months. That mind set has gotta change.

REPORTER: The mayor said an investigation will determine whether it was human or mechanical error that caused the accident.

But he's also acknowledged third possibility - that the city's standards were being followed, but that they're just not tough enough.

For WNYC, I'm Arun Venugopal.