De(con)struction

The crane collapse on the upper east side this past weekend was morbidly spectacular. I had my fill of gawking on a lunchtime walk past the site. The rescue workers had quite an audience of appreciative, slack-jawed onlookers.

The following morning, my commute through Grand Central was interrupted by red tape barring my usual route through the station. Behind the red tape a group of men was standing and kneeling around a still (lifeless?) body on a stretcher. They had clearly been there for some time. One man was administering defibrillation to the body. They had taken the dead man's shoes off. Is that protocol? In any case, all I remember is the scene illustrated below quite clearly. Lots of people had gathered to gawk but I hurried past. I felt for the guy, thought about him and his death, but I didn't feel that stopping and staring was appropriate.