1 dead, 2 injured as Fort Lauderdale building crane fails, crushes cars on bridge

One person died and three others were hurt Thursday when a heavy section of a construction crane plunged hundreds of feet onto a bridge in downtown Fort Lauderdale.

The accident happened around 4:30 p.m. as cars were streaming out of the city just before rush hour, but somehow only a few vehicles were struck on the Southeast Third Avenue bridge. The front ends of two cars appeared heavily damaged, crushed by the debris.

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

A video posted on X showed one of the drivers of the damaged cars visibly baffled after surviving the crane piece falling. He said he saw it coming down.

“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, apparently working on the section of the crane that collapsed, was killed. His identity was not immediately known. Three others were hurt, one critically, while sitting in their cars, Gollan said.

Paramedics took at least two people to Broward Health Medical Center in critical condition, said Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue Assistant Chief Gregory May. Another person escaped with only slight injuries.

The heavy metal framework also punched a hole in part of the bridge, he said, and structural engineers from the Florida Department of Transportation were called in to examine the damage. Until it is certified safe, he said, the bridge would remain closed. Boat traffic on the New River was also shut down near the bridge.

The bridge was reopened and boat traffic went back to normal around midnight, according to the city’s website.

The cause of the failure remained under investigation, but May said it apparently occurred during a procedure where workers were “stepping up” the crane — raising it as the building’s construction moved to higher floors. He said the crane itself did not collapse and remained stable, but another section of it failed.

“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.

Neighbor reports previous incident

According to Fort Lauderdale city records, KAST Construction holds the permit to the $87.9 million dollar project site where the crane appears to be located.

The ongoing project at 333 North New River Drive is a 43-story apartment building, according to city records. It was not immediately clear if KAST or a subcontractor oversaw crane operations at the site. Managers at KAST, which has offices in Miami, West Palm Beach and Tampa, did not respond to several calls for comment.

After the accident, one nearby resident, Caroline Kempska, emailed the Herald to say she was walking with her husband over the Southeast Third Avenue bridge in early February when a metal pipe from a nearby construction site landed with “great impact” just a foot away.

Kempska, who lives at Nu River Condominium, which faces the bridge, said she was shocked to see more equipment falling from the same construction site. She and her husband tried to contact the construction company in February but were never able to.

“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...”

Over the last several years, KAST has settled a handful of lawsuits involving allegations of negligence and injury.

AT&T sued the construction company over damaged equipment. One man sued for an injury he sustained on a construction site due to the “negligent manner” in which it was maintained. Two Las Olas condominium associations, near the fatal crash, have open lawsuits against KAST, one of which alleges one of the construction company’s nearby sites damaged the condo property.

Miami Herald staff writer Omar Rodríguez Ortiz contributed to this report.