Fort Lauderdale, FL:  In downtown Fort Lauderdale, a huge part of a construction crane fell hundreds of feet onto a bridge Thursday, killing one person and injuring three more.

Cars were leaving the city in droves just before rush hour when the accident occurred at 4:30 p.m., but surprisingly, only a small number of vehicles were hit on the South-east Third Avenue bridge. Two cars’ front ends looked to be severely damaged after being squashed by the rubble.

“The amount of cars and traffic backed up, this could have been a lot worse,” said Fire Chief Stephen Gollan during a media briefing.

After surviving the crane piece collapsing, one of the drivers of the wrecked cars was seen in a video put on X looking clearly perplexed. “I saw it coming down,” he claimed.

“It landed on me,” he said to shocked bystanders, emphasizing he was not hurt. “It sheared off the front [of my car]…and I just walked away.”

A construction worker was killed, perhaps while working on the collapsed portion of the crane. It was not immediately clear who he was. Gollan reported that three more people were injured while seated in their cars, one of them critically.

According to Assistant Chief Gregory May of the Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue, paramedics transported at least two individuals in severe condition to Broward Health Medical Centre. Someone other got away with minor wounds.

He added that the Florida Department of Transportation’s structural engineers were sent in to assess the damage after the massive metal framework punched a hole in a portion of the bridge. The bridge will stay blocked until it is deemed safe, he said. Additionally, boat navigation on the New River was prohibited close to the bridge.

According to the city’s website, the bridge was reopened at midnight, and boat traffic resumed as usual.

May stated that although the cause of the breakdown was still being investigated, it seems to have happened during a procedure in which workers were “stepping up” the crane, or lifting it as the building’s construction progressed to higher stories. He claimed that although one part of the crane failed, the crane itself did not collapse and remained stable.

“They were in the process of erecting the crane and moving it up one story when something happened to that piece,” May told the Herald.

KAST Construction is the owner of the permit for the $87.9 million project site where the crane seems to be positioned, according to Fort Lauderdale city records.

According to city records, 333 North New River Drive is now being construction on a 43-story residential complex. It was unclear at first whether crane operations at the site were managed by KAST or a subcontractor. Several requests for response from managers at KAST, which has offices in Tampa, West Palm Beach, and Miami, were not answered.

Following the incident, Caroline Kempska, a local, sent an email to the Herald stating that in early February, while she and her spouse were crossing the South-east Third Avenue bridge, a metal pipe from a neighbouring construction site fell “with great impact” only a foot away.

More equipment started falling from the same building site, which terrified Kempska, who lives at Nu River Condominium, which faces the bridge. In February, she and her spouse attempted, but failed, to get in touch with the building company.

“We were enraged at the time, as it felt this company was extremely negligent, and we are extremely lucky this did not land on our head,” she said. “Now this just happened…and I am so overwhelmed with grief for the tragedy and loss of life due to this company’s negligence. We are lucky it wasn’t any worse…”

KAST has settled a few lawsuits involving claims of carelessness and harm during the past few years.

The construction company was sued by AT&T for damaged equipment. A guy filed a lawsuit after suffering injuries on a construction site as a result of the “negligent manner” in which it was maintained. There are two pending lawsuits against KAST in two Las Olas condominium associations close to the fatal crash. One of the complaints claims that the condo property was injured by one of the construction company’s neighbouring sites.