[imagesource: Fort Lauderdale PD]

A motorist had a close brush with death when a section of a crane collapsed onto their car while they were driving on an overpass adjacent to a construction site.

Unfortunately, the construction worker Jorge De La Torre was not so lucky and was killed when parts of the crane plummeted onto the Fort Lauderdale bridge.

Meanwhile, Gemmalyn Castillo was one of three who were injured when a massive piece of the crane crushed the passenger side of the taxi she was in.

A newly released video shows the piece of wreckage slam onto the black Tesla sedan, stopping the car in its tracks, along with others around it. The video shows the driver jumping out of the car, somehow unharmed, while Castillo was stuck in the back until police extracted her from the seat.

Moment woman escapes fatal crane collapse pic.twitter.com/1yt2K9PRVR

— Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) July 18, 2024

Daily Mail reported that Castillo, who was in the back seat, suffered “severe and serious head and facial trauma” when she was thrown around the cabin.

Castillo had bleeding wounds and was crying hysterically while the driver told police: “My mind is pretty messed up… but if I could have my phone?”

The crane piece fell from a 43-story apartment building that was under construction, planning to house mostly seniors, along with shops. Construction workers were heard saying the crane must have structurally failed as it was being ‘stepped’ by adding pieces to it to increase its height.

“Something snapped and made that thing fall, because that thing was already in place,” one of the workers said.

De La Torre, who was on the crane, tragically fell to his death, while Gregory Garcia, 43, and Carol Zinser, 69, were injured on the ground along with Castillo.

In April, shortly after her miraculous escape from death, Castillo sued the companies involved in the project for $50 million, claiming their negligence caused the accident and they failed to protect the public. Castillo’s lawyer Judd Rosen argues that someone should be held criminally liable for the crane collapse.

“When these types of things happen as a community, we have to look and say, what are we doing to make sure it does not happen again?” he said.

He further claimed the crane wasn’t properly inspected, assembled, or moved, and that shortcuts were made to finish the building “on an unreasonably accelerated schedule”.

De La Torre leaves behind his five-year-old girl and a two-year-old boy after being slain in a seemingly avoidable accident.

[source:dailymail]