‘There’s people screaming.’ New 911 calls detail fatal Fort Lauderdale crane fall
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Fort Lauderdale crane plummets onto bridge, killing a construction worker
On April 4, part of a crane’s heavy metal framework plunged onto the Southeast Third Avenue bridge in Fort Lauderdale while it was being put together. A construction worker, 27-year-old Jorge De La Torre, was killed and three others were injured.
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A heavy section of a construction crane collapsing onto a Fort Lauderdale bridge Thursday threw a small piece of the city into chaos, newly released 911 calls reveal. Bystanders spoke to dispatchers in shocked disbelief, watching people scream and roll on the ground.
Around mid-afternoon, a portion of a crane’s heavy metal framework plunged onto the Southeast Third Avenue bridge, crushing the front ends of two cars. Jorge De La Torre, a 27-year-old construction worker working on the section of the crane that collapsed, was killed. Three other people were injured, including one who was taken to the hospital.
READ MORE: 1 dead as Fort Lauderdale building crane falls, crushes cars on bridge
Fort Lauderdale police identified four people who were “directly involved” in the crane incident: Gemmalyn Castillo, 37; Carol Zinser, 69; Mark Cerezin, 56; and Gregory Garcia, 43. It’s unclear what their involvement was, but two of the four were taken to the hospital.
As one caller connects to 911, all that can be heard is screaming and shouting. The woman on the line desperately tells the operator that a crane fell on the bridge and there is a woman bleeding from her head.
“There’s a construction site, and it fell on a car on the bridge, and someone is bleeding from their head,” she said, breaking down into tears.
She barely avoided being the car the crane part fell on, she said.
“You can’t even imagine. That was so horrible,” she said. “It was the car right in front of me...”
Another woman told a 911 dispatcher it appeared that a crane had fallen onto the bridge.
“There’s people screaming,” she tearfully said. “There’s people hurt up on the bridge...We were walking right by the bridge when we heard something loud, and equipment was following from maybe 20 stories up....”
A man urgently told operators that he needed “everybody rolling over here now” as a crane collapsed on the bridge.
In complete disbelief, another woman called 911 to report the collapse.
“A piece of crane just went down on a car, holy s---,” she said. “Oh my God, I can’t believe what I just saw.”
The cause of the failure is being investigated by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
READ MORE: OSHA investigating construction companies tied to fatal Fort Lauderdale crane incident
This story was originally published April 5, 2024 at 12:00 AM.
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