At 3:30 or so today a construction crane being taken down collapse in the South Lake Union neighborhood. It came down over the Mercer Street at Fairview Avenue intersection crushing or damaging 6 cars on Mercer. The accident killed 4 (2 crane operators and 2 people in their vehicles).
It appears that the crane came down on the newly constructed building, breaking the crane cab off and it landed onto Mercer Street.
While thought to be partially weather related as a sudden burst of high winds and rain hit the area when the accident happened.
The crane, operated by Northwest Tower Crane, fell off the roof of a building being constructed for Google. * Seattle PI news.
Seattle’s construction frenzy produced its first fatal accident in a dozen years when a crane working on a new Google campus fell like a thunderbolt in South Lake Union around 3:30 p.m. Saturday, pinning cars beneath it and killing four people.
Two crane operators and two people in separate cars were dead by the time Seattle firefighters got to the site at Fairview Avenue North and Mercer Street, fire officials said. Four others were injured, including a mother and child and a 27-year-old man, according to Fire Chief Harold Scoggins. He said six cars were hit.
* Seattle Times
One injured was treated at the scene and sent home.
The Mercer Street area between I-5 and Westlake Avenue is closed until sometime Sunday.