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Seattle Crane Collapse Leaves Four Dead Just Outside Google Building

By Maria Goncalves
Published on: 22:06 PST, Apr 28, 2019

Four people were killed while three others were injured after a freak accident that saw a construction crane collapse over a busy street in Seattle.

The crane fell from above Seattle’s under-construction Google building on Saturday at around 3:30 p.m. local time, crushing cars and causing mass devastation along the way, according to the BBC. The Seattle Fire Department confirmed that two people working in the crane died, while two others were killed in their cars. Among the injured were a woman and her baby, and a man in his 20s, who were all rushed to the hospital.

Witness Esther Nelson told The Seattle Times that it seemed the crane wasn’t able to handle the strong winds and appeared to break in half, causing massive damage to the building that was under construction, which is reportedly set to house a new Google campus as well as 150 other new flats.

“Half of it was flying down sideways on the building, the other half fell down on the street, crossing both lanes of traffic,” Nelson said.

Shocking footage of the tragic collapse has now emerged, showing the crane crashing down on the city’s busy downtown street as it was being disassembled, while several cars were driving just below. As reported by The Daily Mail, another separate clip showed the crane dangerously swaying in the wind just moments before the incident.

The video was recorded by Deyan Cashmere and his father Eric, who both work in construction. Deyan said he “thought it was going to fall” because it “wasn’t standing upright,” adding that when they heard a huge crashing sound just a few minutes later, they instantly knew it was the leaning crane. The pair handed their copies of the video to local police, who are now investigating the Mercer Street accident.

According to The Daily Mail, one of the confirmed victims of the crash is Sarah Wong, a South Pasadena, California, native who studied nursing at Seattle Pacific University. The freshman had been riding in the car with a fellow student when the crane fell. The other student was reportedly uninjured, but “deeply shaken by the accident and the loss of Sarah,” SPU said.

“We are deeply saddened to confirm that one of our students passed away in the crane accident in Seattle on April 27,” the school added in a statement released on Sunday.

“While we grieve the sudden and tragic loss of our precious student, we draw comfort from each other, our strong community of faith, and God’s presence with us in times of sorrow. We ask that the community join us in praying for Sarah’s family and friends during this difficult time.”

Two of the other fatalities have been identified as Andrew Yoder from Seattle, and his colleague, who was from Portland but hasn’t been named yet. They were both experienced ironworkers and were in charge of disassembling the crane when the accident happened.

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