http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/lanes-open-tappan-zee-bridge-crane-collapse-article-1.2723504

The Tappan Zee Bridge in New York experienced a close-call last week when a crane working on the bridge collapsed. Two workers and three drivers were injured but thankfully no one was seriously hurt. Now the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is investigating the incident to see what went wrong and if there were any lapses in safety.

More than 130,000 cars cross the bridge each day, and the crane was working on a replacement bridge. The crane was allegedly doing routine work when it collapsed, holding a vibrating hammer in place as it pushed piles into the bottom of the river. The construction company is on a deadline to finish the job, and according to the contract agreement made in 2013 they will be fined $1,500 per minute if they miss deadlines. The terms and deadlines may have changed by now. The crane was not yet a year old. There is some speculation that the hammer malfunctioned, and if it became stuck driving the piles into the river the pressure could have built up and caused the boom to fall over but investigators still have not determined the cause.

The crane was in a tight spot on the bridge, sitting on the deck of the new bridge which runs right next to the old one. The boom collapsed and part of it fell on a platform below the two bridges, and part of the 250 foot tall boom fell on the bridge currently in use. No cars were hit but cars swerved to avoid it and traffic was stopped while they cleared the scene. Officials determined that wind was not a factor. Officials from OSHA and New York’s Department of Labor are conducting interviews and trying to determine if the equipment was faulty. The 28 cranes on the site are inspected daily by the drivers and monthly by supervisors. Outside companies inspect the cranes on an annual basis.

There have been a couple of crane disasters in the city recently, and New York mayor Bill de Blasio has created a task force to try and come up with safety recommendations for cranes in New York City. One such recommendation is to install a kind of “black box” that might tell investigators what went wrong, like whether the crane was overloaded at the time of an accident or if weather was a factor.