The owner of a crane that collapsed and killed two workers on the Upper East Side nearly two years ago pleaded not guilty Monday to manslaughter charges.

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. announced the indictment of James Lomma and his companies New York Crane and Equipment Corp. and J.F. Lomma, Inc. during a morning press conference.

The 64-year-old Staten Island resident and his company face multiple charges of manslaughter, criminally-negligent homicide, assault and reckless endangerment.

Tibor Varganyi, a former mechanic with the company, was also indicted on the same charges.

It is alleged that Varganyi, 65, selected a Chinese company to fix the crane’s turntable, based on lower cost estimates and shorter repair time. But the Manhattan district attorney charges that the company was not fully vetted.

The repair failed, causing the upper parts of the crane to break off and fall 200 feet to the ground, damaging an apartment building and killing construction workers Donald Leo and Ramadan Kurtaj in May of 2008.

Vance Jr. says the tragedy could have been prevented if basic measures were taken.

The collapse came a little more than two months after a crane fell in Turtle Bay, killing seven people.

Lomma and Varganyi face 27 years in prison if convicted.

(Source: http://www.ny1.com/)