One person was killed and three others were injured on Thursday after a portion of a crane being used at the construction site of a high-rise building plunged onto a nearby bridge in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
A construction worker was killed and two people were taken to the hospital after a portion of a ... [+]
Construction crews were raising the height of the crane when one of its platforms came loose and fell hundreds of feet, the city’s Fire Department Chief Stephen Gollan told reporters.
The deceased person was a worker at the construction site who fell along with the collapsed segment.
The collapsed platform damaged two vehicles on the bridge and caused injuries to three people—two of whom were sent to a nearby hospital in stable condition.
The third person received minor injuries and refused to be taken to the hospital.
The incident took place late in the afternoon while several vehicles were moving on the bridge, and Gollan said with the “amount of cars and traffic backed up, this could have been a lot worse.”
The fall of the crane segment punched a hole into the bridge and the bridge, which will remain closed to all traffic until it is repaired and deemed safe. All boat traffic in the section of the river that runs under the bridge has also been halted. According to the Associated Press, the fire department and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration will investigate the cause of the collapse.
1 dead, 2 injured as Fort Lauderdale building crane fails, crushes cars on bridge (Miami Herald)