The sight of a construction crane balanced vertically stopped people in their tracks at the Westminster Manor Retirement Community construction site Friday. A mobile crane tipped over backwards in the 4700 block of Jackson Avenue near Camp Mabry late Friday morning. Workers said the crane was standing about 50-feet tall and was moving cement at the time. “How many injuries there could be, and how devastating it could be when somebody says ‘crane’, you don’t think the size of it,” Senior Police Officer Veneza Aguinaga said. A 36-year-old worker was rushed to the hospital with life-threatening injuries after the accident. Police have not released his name. Bystander Justin Garrett owns an unaffiliated construction company. He stopped by to take pictures of the scene Friday afternoon. “To show my guys the severity of this kind of stuff,” Garret said. “Cranes topple. Random situations like this. It could be no one’s fault at all that it happened.” Workers said the ground underneath the crane gave way due to recent rainfall. Garrett, who has undergone crane safety training, said it is a likely scenario. “It depends on who was around, what they were lifting, what happened with whatever he was picking up, where the operator was, if he was in the crane at the time,” he said. The site’s general contractor, White Construction Company, refused to comment. The police homicide unit and OSHA are investigating the incident. Work on the construction site has stopped until the investigation is complete.
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http://www.news8austin.com/content/top_stories/274293/crane-accident-sends-1-to-hospital/
