Man sentenced to six months in prison for involvement in crane accident

A man was sentenced to 6 months in prison and five months probation for his role in causing the Death of a colleague in a quarry in Rensselaer County in 2022.

Anthony Valente was operating a crane at the RJ Valente gravel quarry in Grafton on October 1, 2022. He activated an override to bypass the safety system. A cable broke from the crane and a 285-pound hook ball fell, killing Darren Miller.

That crane had been damaged in a rollover and brought into the mine two years earlier, according to a U.S. Department of Labor report. Repairs were made but no inspection was conducted. The crane was not operational, according to a 2021 letter to the construction company.

Miller’s family was disappointed with the length of the negotiated sentence during the plea bargain in April and asked the judge to reject it.