miami – Part of a crane fell off a Fort Lauderdale bridge Thursday afternoon, killing one worker and injuring three others.
The incident happened around 4:30 p.m. on the Southeast 3rd Street bridge near Las Olas Boulevard in downtown.
Images from Chopper 4 show part of the metal structure falling onto the black vehicle, splitting it almost in half. Another vehicle stuck on the bridge, a Tesla, had visible damage to its front end.
Tesla driver Mark Selezin said: “I was driving over the 3rd Avenue bridge and I felt some kind of pressure and I looked up and saw this big, huge piece of blue metal falling down.'' “So I slammed on the brakes,” he said. And it crashed into the front of my car. ”
“It was like slow motion. Then that piece of metal bounced through the air, went to the right and landed on top of another car.”
“I couldn't believe he was still alive.”
A Fort Lauderdale resident said he got out of his car and saw a woman bleeding. Serezin said he took off his shirt and applied pressure to help his girlfriend.
“My heart hurts…I mean, for this person and their loved ones who lost their life…I mean, it could have been me.”
Valeria Boettcher captured a video of the moments after part of the crane fell. She was in the car with her 6-year-old daughter, her boyfriend and her sister. She says they were just meters away from where the incident occurred.
“We're seeing this like we've seen it in movies, like we've seen it in horror movies, where the details of this construction are falling off like paper,” Boettcher said.
She said a nearby car hit part of the crane and her boyfriend ran to help.
“Life is very short. All you have to do now is live today, in this moment,” Boettcher said.
The extent of the injuries to the two people who were taken to Broward Health Medical Center is unknown, and the identity of the man who died in the crash has not yet been released.
Real estate agent Jason Taub, who lives nearby, took video of a section of the crane hoisting onto the platform of the New River Apartments.
A few seconds later, debris fell onto the bridge. “The moment it hit, I heard a scream. It was hard to get it out of my head.”
Fort Lauderdale Fire Department Chief Steven Golan held a press conference to update the media on what happened. He said the only fatality was a worker who fell along with part of the crane.
Two people were rushed to the hospital and are said to be in stable condition, but the other person refused treatment.
Golan said the device holding the platform failed and it fell onto the bridge below.
“What I heard from the construction company is that at the time they were doing a process called crane stepping. It wasn't actually the crane itself that broke down. It was the equipment that was being installed that broke down at the time. It was a platform.'' This incident and those items fell from the building onto the bridge below. ”
“The New River is closed to all maritime traffic in both directions. Part of the fallen crane impacted the bridge, creating a hole. Therefore, the road is closed until the structural integrity of the bridge can be confirmed. “It will be closed to traffic,” he added.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the Fort Lauderdale Police Department are investigating the incident.
