A young woman died tragically yesterday afternoon, after a construction crane collapsed onto an apartment building in downtown Dallas, Texas.
Dallas Crane Collapsed in High Winds
Dallas Fire Rescue responded to reports of an “industrial accident” at the five-story Elan City Lights residence, located at 2627 Live Oak Street, shortly before 2:00 p.m. on June 9th.
The Dallas area was apparently enduring a severe thunderstorm at the time, with hail and wind gusts as high as 70 mph.
The massive crane was on an adjacent construction site and buckled during a sudden burst of wind. The crane then toppled over backwards and split apart the top floors of the apartment building.
“My walls started to shake a little bit. I looked out and the entire courtyard had turned completely white from the debris,” one resident told CBS 11/21.
Remains of 29-Year-Old Woman Recovered from Rubble
According to Dallas Fire Rescue official Jason Evans, the Elan City Lights building subsequently suffered multiple collapses that affected residential areas and the parking garage.
Rescue crews recovered the body of a 29-year-old woman from the rubble yesterday afternoon.
Paramedics, meanwhile, transferred five people to local hospitals, including two who were in critical condition and two listed as serious. The fifth person was released from the hospital after being treated for minor injuries.
Rescue crews completed a search of the entire building by Sunday evening and found no other victims.
Cranes Should Withstand 140 MPH Winds
While authorities believe that yesterday’s rough weather contributed to the Dallas crane collapse, one expert told CNN that construction cranes should be able to withstand 140 mph winds.
“Was it installed properly? These are things (that) will come out later in the investigation of why it happened,” said former federal inspector Thomas Barth. “This crane should not have gone over backwards.”
Among other things, he suggested the crane could have been tied down with heavy weights to ensure it wouldn’t topple over.
“It happened on a weekend,” Barth continued. ‘Why didn’t anybody check the weather for the weekend, knowing that this storm was coming in? Why didn’t they prepare the crane?”
9 Deaths from North Texas Crane Accidents Since 2012
The Lone Star State currently leads the nation in fatal crane accidents. In fact, from 2011 to 2015, Texas had almost as many crane-related deaths as the next four states combined.
Sunday’s incident was the ninth crane accident fatality recorded in North Texas since 2012.
In each of the previous cases, inspectors from the U.S. Occupational Safety & Health Administration cited companies for at least one serious workplace safety violation; however, in more than half of the incidents, the fines were less than $10,000.
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