South Florida Crane Collapse Kills 1 Worker, Injuries People on Bridge

A construction worker was killed and three other people were injured when a crane section fell onto a bridge in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, heavily damaging cars that were crossing the bridge Thursday.

The Miami Herald and other news sites reported that the worker was on the crane when it collapsed onto the Southeast Third Avenue drawbridge. One person in a vehicle below was critically injured, and others narrowly missed serious injuries. One driver said on a social media post that the crane landed directly on his Tesla car, and missed him by inches.

The bridge was closed for hours while engineers with the state Department of Transportation checked it for damage, news outlets reported. The crane was being used in the construction of a 43-story Gables Riverwalk apartment building in downtown Fort Lauderdale, The Real Deal news site noted.

The crash came 18 months after another crane collapse in Fort Lauderdale killed one worker and injured another. Nationwide, fatal injuries from crane collapses have declined by half in the past 30 years, but still average about 40 per year, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows.

Crane collapses can end up in litigation between insurers and crane manufacturers. The Florida Supreme Court recently was asked by a federal appeals court to decide on how much insurers can recover from a crane maker under the economic loss rule, stemming from a 2018 crane accident in Tampa. Read more here.

Under Florida’s workers’ compensation law, the deceased workers’ spouse, if he was married, may be entitled to half of his average weekly wage, up to a total of $150,000, according to a 2022 report by the Workers’ Compensation Research Institute. That’s less than some surrounding states provide.

Photo: The collapse blocked traffic at the Southeast Third Avenue bridge last week. (Carline Jean/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP)

Topics Florida