Ah, New York City in the summer! Generally, we really do love it, despite the on-the-way-to-work sweatiness and fish-in-an-old-sweat-sock smells. But with summer comes air conditioners, and with air conditioners come inept installations into apartment windows, and with inept installations come the occasional, every so often, reports that an air conditioner has fallen from the sky and bashed someone in the head. Which would be awful. So, how much should we worry about this, really? We took to the Internet, place of great knowledge, to find out./2006/06/14/... , which happened back in 2006. Given that I only had one hit, and that that was only for someone injured by a falling air conditioner, I'm going to say that the number of people killed by a falling air conditioner is statistically insignificant, and most likely does not occur on a yearly basis. But should we be so easily placated? After all, it's only THE INTERNET. So, we carried on with our research. The 2006 post on Gothamist reveals that a woman was indeed hit by an air conditioner unit falling out of a window on East 104th Street, as reported by the Post.

Her "right leg was crushed, the bone shattered. She also suffered broken ribs, a broken pelvis, fractured vertebrae, and internal bleeding." She was, fortunately, expected to recover.Another person, on the mixed martial arts forum of Sherdog, suggests that there might be a greater conspiracy at work with regard to plummeting air conditioners. There has got to be some NYC government cover up on this.... And lo, we recall that in September of last year there was another air-conditioning incident, near Village Voice HQ, in fact. We even wrote about it. 67-year-old Tony Franzese was just walking his Shih Tzu down 2nd Avenue at 3rd Street when he got bonked on the head with the errant A.C. He reportedly suffered a head wound and was taken to Bellevue, where we're told he's in stable condition. The NYPD also told us that the A.C.'s fall had been determined an accident, with no charges against the tenant -- a/k/a, "It was not pushed." According to the New York Post, building inspectors have already ordered air conditioner brackets be installed immediately and given citations to the building's owner But!

The awning of the Wine Bar, which generously took the brunt of the initial impact, may have saved his life, says the Wine Bar's owner, Raymond Azzi. (Franzese later sued for $21 million.)Just a couple of months later there was another A.C. plummet, this one in West New York. As reported by the Jersey Journal, 24-year-old New Jersey man Esidra Valles was hit by an air conditioner that fell 15 stories and struck him in the head. does an ac unit have to be in a window"His injuries required a one-hour surgery and about 50 staples and stitches across his head and face." best price for ac unitsHe had this to say: "I feel like, if your air conditioner is falling, yell something," Valles said, "I heard nothing."ac unit will not turn off The New York Times was worried about air conditioners falling out of windows and hitting people back in 2004, as related to co-op liability.

Earlier this year, EV Grieve reported on a piece of an air conditioner that had fallen on East 10th Street, prompting a response from the FDNY. Air conditioners have also struck people in London and Chicago (they -- the people, that is -- survived).In fact, in our admittedly unscientific search, we found zero confirmed cases of death by air conditioner, and only a few mentions. A child was critically injured when he fell from a window (that lacked bars, which had been removed to put in an air conditioner) and landed on another air conditioner unit. But, air conditioners can save lives, too. So what's the deal? Has anyone in New York City ever been killed by a falling air conditioner?According to Jennifer Gilbert, press secretary for the NYC Department of Buildings, Accidents involving air conditioners are rare in New York City, but property owners of buildings seven stories and higher must submit façade reports to the Department every five years to ensure that the buildings' exteriors are properly maintained.

All property owners are responsible for the maintenance of their buildings and are encouraged to follow the Department's installation tips.But what is RARE?We checked with the NYPD. Detective Cheryl Crispin of the Office of the Deputy Commissioner said, succinctly, "We do not compile data on those accidents."Yahoo Answers, meanwhile, has its own questions to ask about air-conditioner-icide. If a portable air conditioner falls from window (killing someone, is that manslaughter? Scenario 1: The owner of the apartment unit was too lazy to secure the air conditioner in the unit and was just desperate for cool air and did an inferior job putting it in the upstairs window. Sadly, the air conditioner was slowly and steadily rolling more and more outside, and eventually it fell out the window, hitting a street pedestrian and killing the person. (Is the owner liable? Is the owner guilty? if Guilty, of what crime?) Scenario 2: The owner installs the portable air conditioner and does an inferior job.

Then the owner paints the outside of the window with the message "I am PURPOSELY making sure the air conditioner falls out the window." And it kills someone. What would the charge be in scenario 2? New York Red Bulls vs. Philadelphia Union New Jersey Devils vs. New York Rangers New York Jets vs. Seattle Seahawks New York Red Bulls II 2016 USL Cup Playoffs Round 1 The more we know, the more we want to know. But, going back to our original question: How worried should we be about Death by Air Conditioner? Since there seem to be few of these incidents, and fewer still reported by the cops or Department of Buildings, and zero on historical record that have actually killed anyone, we say...This is exactly the sort of thing that takes our mind off being struck by lightning as we pass by a light post in a sudden thunderstorm while barefoot and on our cell phones.Comptroller Peter Franchot's long quest to pressure Baltimore city and county schools to put window air conditioning units in classrooms took a big advance at a particularly ironic time.

On the day he announced that the Board of Public Works would endorse a policy change that could allow state school construction funds to be used for the purpose, four city schools had closed for a lack of heat. A day later, an elementary/middle school in Butcher's Hill closed for the same reason while Catonsville High School and the Catonsville Center for Alternative Studies closed at 10:30 due to a lack of water.But the timing is more than comical. It also underscores that while it may be perfectly appropriate in some cases for the state to support school systems' purchases of window air conditioners, the issue is by no means as simple and obvious as Mr. Franchot suggests. The lack of air conditioning in, at present, 27 percent of schools in Baltimore County and 46 percent in Baltimore City, is hardly the only facilities problem those jurisdictions face. The city has the oldest stock of school buildings in the state, and Baltimore County has the second oldest. There likely aren't many for which the lack of air conditioning is the only or even the most important problem when it comes to providing a safe environment conducive to teaching and learning.

The question isn't whether installing window units in city and county classrooms could speed the process of adding air conditioning to all schools. The question is whether pursuing that path would impede the goal of addressing problems that affect students and teachers 180 days a year, not just a few days a year in June and August. Popping air conditioning units into a school's classrooms entails more than a trip to Home Depot. In many cases, the electrical systems in the schools in question aren't adequate to handle the load, so installing them requires fairly extensive work. Mr. Franchot estimates the total cost at $9,700 per classroom, which would add up quickly — perhaps reaching $10 million or more for Baltimore County. Furthermore, Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz, who has been a vocal opponent of Mr. Franchot's window unit advocacy, has questioned whether installing the window units would drop those schools to the bottom of the priority list for more extensive makeovers, not to mention the wisdom of spending money to add window AC to schools that are scheduled for replacement or renovation in the years ahead.

Under current plans, virtually all county schools will be air conditioned by 2019 regardless of the state's policy on window units.The Interagency Committee on School Construction, which sets policies for the use of state school construction funds and vets projects, has not previously allowed state support for window AC units because it considered them to be non-permanent improvements that come with higher maintenance and operating costs. Even if the Board of Public Works votes as Mr. Franchot expects and changes the policy, it can't change those facts. Maryland's pool of school construction money is far outstripped by the need, and local jurisdictions fight every year to make the most compelling case possible that their project is the best investment for the state. When Messrs. Hogan and Franchot (and Treasurer Nancy K. Kopp, who has wisely stayed out of this fight) hear from local officials at the annual "beg-a-thon" for school construction funds, they'll be faced with about $650 million in requests and will have about $300 million in funds to dole out.