Crane Owner Confirms 1 Death In Dallas From Falling Construction Crane During Storm

Gusty winds from a severe storm plunged a construction crane onto an occupied Downtown Dallas apartment building Sunday, leaving one dead and several injured, MarketWatch reports. 

News outlets identified the apartment complex as a Greystar-operated building known as Elan City Lights. 

The crane owner, Bigge Crane and Rigging Co., confirmed in a statement that emergency responders reported one fatality after one of its cranes crashed into a residential building during stormy weather and high winds in Dallas. 

The San Leandro, California-based company is a family-owned crane retailer and rental operator that specializes in heavy lift, rigging and engineering for large construction projects. 

While the incident took Dallas by surprise, plummeting construction cranes are a foreseeable construction risk, according to a Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries report released by the U.S. Department of Labor and Statistics. 

Texas led the nation in the number of fatal injuries involving cranes with 40 deaths between 2011 and 2015, the CFOI report said.

Texas is followed by Illinois with 12 deaths during the same time period, Florida with 11 fatalities, and California and Pennsylvania with 10 deaths per state. 

The CFOI report discovered 220 crane-related deaths, an average of 44 deaths per year, from 2011 to 2015. 

The same report shows crane deaths mostly impacted construction workers, with half of the fatal injuries involving workers struck by objects or equipment.  

While generally rare, civilian deaths from falling cranes do occur. A falling crane on Mercer Street in Seattle at the end of April killed four people in an accident that remains under investigation, though early reports indicate the construction team may have been dismantling the crane incorrectly, causing the collapse. The Seattle incident also occurred at a time when meteorologists reported gusty winds in the area.