New York, NY – One person died and two others were seriously injured when a crane collapsed in Lower Manhattan during a snow squall Thursday, smashing the roofs of parked cars as it crashed onto the street, authorities said.
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The collapsed red boom of the mobile crane landed across an intersection and stretched much of a block after the accident, which occurred around 8:25 a.m. in the Tribeca neighborhood, about 10 blocks north of the World Trade Center.
“It was right outside my window,” said Robert Harold, who works at the Legal Aid Society. “It was a crashing sound. You could feel the vibration in the building. I looked out the window and saw it lying in the street.”
Harold said at least one person was trapped in a car and he saw onlookers trying to get the person out. Harold said he also saw a person lying motionless on the street.
There crane’s long boom appeared to have glanced off buildings on the way down. There was damage on a nearby roof and the street was littered with chunks of concrete and wood.
The crawler crane’s big cab lay upside down in the snow with its tank tracks pointed at the sky. Red metal from the boom jutted up in an intersection next to a green street sign for the Brooklyn Bridge.
A manager at the company that owned the crane, Bay Crane, said the accident was being investigated and declined further comment. He would not give his name.
The street was blocked off for at least 3 blocks and nearby buildings were evacuated. Officers told people arriving for work they should go home.
Subway trains bypassed the area and local roads were closed.
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It’s terrible that there was a fatality, BD”H, but it’s an absolute miracle that dozens weren’t hurt or killed. It looks like the crane takes up several blocks!