Last week, New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, along with other city officials, announced they have formed a task force to make recommendations for improving scaffolding safety. The task force was in response to an increase in the number of accidents and deaths of scaffold workers over the past three months.

The announcement came a day after construction worker Ramiro Jara, a 25-year-old Ecuadorean immigrant, apparently was stepping between two hanging scaffolds at a Manhattan office building when he fell about 15 stories to his death. According to an NBC broadcast, Jara was not attached to a safety line when he fell, and his employer, Town Restoration Services of Brooklyn, did not have a licensed rigger or designated foreman to monitor the construction site.

“One death is simply one too many,” said Patricia J. Lancaster, the commissioner of the Department of Buildings, during the press conference Thursday to announce the task force.