MIAMI – A worker fell to his death and three others were injured Thursday afternoon after part of a crane fell on a Fort Lauderdale bridge.
It happened at around 4:30 p.m. on the SE 3rd Avenue bridge in downtown, near Las Olas Boulevard.
Images from Chopper 4 showed part of the metal structure which ended up on top of a black vehicle, almost splitting it in half. A second vehicle stuck on the bridge, a Tesla, showed visible front-end damage.
Mark Cerezin, the driver of the Tesla said, “I was driving over the 3rd Avenue Bridge and I felt some type of compression, and I looked up and I saw this big, huge piece of blue metal coming down and I slammed on the brakes and then it hit the front of my car.”
“It was like slow motion, then that piece of metal bounced in the air and then went to the right and landed on another car.”
“I couldn’t believe that I was still alive.”
The Fort Lauderdale resident says he got out of his car and saw a lady who was bleeding. Cerezin tells us he took off his shirt and put compression to help her.
“My heart goes out… I mean, to this person who lost their life and their loved ones… I mean, that could have been me.”
Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue Chief Stephen Gollan held a press conference to update the media on what took place. He said the only fatality was a worker who fell along with part of the crane.
Three other people on the ground were injured, but are expected to be OK.
Gollan said a platform holding equipment failed and fell onto the bridge below.
“It’s my understanding from the construction company that they were doing a process at the time called stepping the crane. It was not the crane per se that actually failed. It was a platform that they had equipment staged on that had failed at the time of the incident and those items fell from the building down onto the bridge below.”
“The New River is closed in both directions to all marine traffic. The section of the crane that fell did impact the bridge, leaving a hole. So, until such time as the structural integrity of the bridge can be determined, this roadway will be closed,” he added.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) will be investigating this incident.
