New York City briefs

Construction worker

dies in Queens fall

A construction worker fell more than five stories to his death Thursday morning at a school being built in Sunnyside, police said.

The 45-year-old man, whose name was not released, was working on the elevator of a six-story building when he fell down the shaft to the basement about 8:15 a.m., police said.

He was standing on a platform inside the elevator shaft when he fell. He was wearing a safety harness, but had not connected it to a lifeline, Department of Buildings spokeswoman Kelly Magee said. The building, on 42nd Street, had two open violations from April for operating a crane without approval to do so or the proper license.

A second man in his 30s, whose identity also was not released, was injured by falling debris caused by the worker's fall, police said. He was working on the fourth floor at the time, police said. Both men had been installing new elevators in the building at the time, Magee said.

The workers were both taken to Elmhurst Hospital Center, where the first worker was pronounced dead. Police said the other man was in stable condition.

Manhattan shines

in survey of singles

Manhattan is the second-best city to be a single adult, trailing only San Francisco, according to a survey from Rent.com.

As of 2012 there were 494,899 singles in Manhattan, the survey found, 31.5 percent of the island's population of 1,572,295. San Francisco ranked No. 1 on the list because 39 percent of its population was single.

The website defines singles as those older than 20 who have never been married or are divorced, separated or widowed.

New York City got the highest possible score on a 1-1,000 scale in the survey's nightlife options, restaurant options and frequent coffee shop-goers indexes.

The survey also found that singles in New York don't have to worry about being victims of crime, giving the city a score of 822 in its safety index.

Kathy Szwader, 27, a company vice president who lives in Middle Village, told amNewYork that late-night options cater to a single crowd.

"I've been to different states and their bars and clubs close significantly earlier," she said. "In New York, there are places open until 4 [a.m.] and coffee shops open 24 hours."

Brandon Timmons, 23, a musical theater actor who lives in Harlem and is gay and newly single, said the city is great for people of all sexual orientations.

"You meet people you'd never meet [because] everybody's out," he said. "We're all walking; we're all on the train."

Cabdriver killed in midtown auto mishap

A 58-year-old livery cabdriver was pinned and killed by his SUV in midtown when it started to drift back Thursday, police said.

The man, whose name was not released, was driving north on Madison Avenue just before 11:20 a.m. when he stopped the 2011 Ford Expedition near the corner of 49th Street.

He got out of the SUV, police said, and it started to roll backward. He tried to jump back in to stop it, but it drifted sideways and pinned him between his own car and a parked van.

Police said he was taken to New York Presbyterian Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Change in abuse

filing limitation urged

The attorney for some women who say they were sexually abused by a teacher at a Brooklyn school in the late 1960s and early 1970s says New York's statute of limitations on abuse cases needs to be changed.

Gloria Allred appeared at a news conference Thursday with three of seven women who say they were abused as students at the Woodward School, which closed in the 1990s. The teacher, Bob Rusch, acknowledged to The Wall Street Journal that he had sex with students, but denied memory of certain allegations and refused to comment on others.

He declined further comment to The Associated Press.

The state statute of limitations for bringing civil claims is five years after an incident has been reported to police or five years after the victim turns 18.