TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) -- A 1,000-ton construction crane piecing together a new interstate bridge collapsed, killing three workers and injuring five others while narrowly missing a busy highway.
The steel structure landed Monday between the northbound and southbound lanes of Interstate 280, which splits inside the construction zone. The tip of the crane came to rest just on the edge of the road.
``It was like the loudest thunder I've ever heard in my life,'' said Lucky Davis, who was driving toward the bridge when he heard a crack.
He said it was ``miraculous'' that no one on the road was killed.
Dawn Croydon and her husband were driving across the old bridge when they saw a huge dust cloud. As they approached and the dust cleared, they saw workers hanging limp in their safety harnesses.
``I looked around and cars were whizzing by. I don't think people realized at first,'' she said.
The 315-foot-long, custom-made crane crushed a tractor-trailer carrying an 85-ton section of new roadway and fell on the back of another trailer.
Fire crews pulled five workers out of wreckage. Some were trapped under debris on the ground and others were higher in the structure, said Fire Chief Mike Bell.
A second crane lifted workers about 70 feet into the air so that they could retrieve the body of one worker dangling from a support for the new bridge.
The victims, who were working on pylons below the crane, were Robert Lipinski Jr., 44; Mike Phillips, 42; and Mike Moreau, 30, said Joe Blaze, business manager of Toledo-based Ironworkers Local 55.
``They were career ironworkers,'' Blaze said. ``They weren't rookies. They were excellent top men, very experienced.''
It is too early to speculate about what may have caused the collapse, because it is a very complex situation, said Richard Martinko, assistant director for the transportation department.
The crane was putting together sections of the bridge's ramp that will lead to the span across the Maumee River just north of downtown Toledo. When the new bridge is finished, the old bridge will be used for local traffic.
The highway connects the Ohio Turnpike and Interstate 75, a heavily used truck route between Cleveland and Detroit.
``This is the saddest day in our company's history. We lost three men,'' said Matti Jaekel, president and CEO of suburban St. Louis-based Fru-Con, the primary contractor for the project. ``They are men of great courage. Construction is their life.''
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