18.03.2015

Crane knocks road sign onto bus

Eight people were injured yesterday evening after a crane knocked a large road sign down onto a bus in Seattle.

The details of what happened are not completely clear however we do know that a lattice boom crawler crane was lifting steel tubes from a trailer on one side of Highway 520 close to Lake Washington Boulevard - which had been closed while the truck was unloaded- when the load of steel tubes struck a bus and then hit the overhead road sign, causing its support gantry to break away from its vertical supports.
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The fallen road sign narrowly missed the driver of the bus

The sign came down over both lanes of the highway and landed on the front end of the bus, narrowly missing the driver. Of the 20 passengers, eight were taken to a local hospital to be treated for minor injuries. The road was also temporarily closed while the sign and debris was removed.
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The fallen road sign

UPDATE

The contractor involved- Flatiron Construction - has now discontinued the practice of unloading steel pipes while traffic passes alongside, and it looks into other options.

Lars Erickson, a spokesman for the Washington State Department of Transportation said: “No deliveries from the Highway 520 mainline will take place until Flatiron completes the evaluation, develops a plan for materials delivery and provides an update to us”.