Frantic 911 calls detail the moments after parts of a crane and construction materials crashed onto a Fort Lauderdale bridge on Thursday, killing one worker and leaving three other people injured.
"We're on the Riverwalk and a bunch of equipment just fell on the bridge, fell off the top of a building, and there's people probably hurt," a caller tells a dispatcher in one of the recordings. "It looks like a crane or something fell ma'am, there's people screaming."
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FORT LAUDERDALE CRANE COLLAPSE
The incident happened at around 4:30 p.m. Thursday at a high rise that's under construction at the Southeast 3rd Avenue bridge over the New River, near Southeast 4th Street.
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"There's people hurt up on the bridge, you hear people screaming," the caller tells the dispatcher. "We just heard stuff falling from the top and it came down on the bridge, you can hear people screaming."
In another call, screaming can be heard in the background as a woman tells a dispatcher that another woman's head is bleeding.
Fort Lauderdale fire officials said a construction crew was in the process of "stepping the crane" by adding sections to a crane to make it taller when a platform fell from the building, along with pieces of the crane.
"There's a building that is under construction and a piece of the crane just fell down on top of a car on the bridge, holy s---!" a woman says in one of the 911 calls. "A piece of crane just went down on a car on the bridge, holy s---!"
Construction worker Jorge De La Torre, 27, fell with the crane section, causing fatal injuries, officials said.
The crane section landed on the nearby bridge, damaging at least two vehicles. At least two other people who were in vehicles were transported to the hospital, one in stable condition and the other with minor injuries. A third person was also treated for their injuries at the scene.
"We had a crane collapse onto the bridge, I need everybody rolling here now please," a man says in one of the calls. "There's people outside rolling on the ground, I need people here now please."
Another woman who called 911 becomes emotional as she describes the scene.
"Equipment was falling from probably 18, 20 stories up and there's people screaming on the bridge," she said.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration will lead the investigation into why the collapse happened.
