Four Workers Killed in Two Crane Accidents

Three workers were killed when a crane collapsed in Toledo Ohio, and another was killed when two cranes collapsed in Connecticut.

In the Toledo area’s worst construction accident in decades, three ironworkers died and five other workers were injured yesterday after a 2-million-pound crane collapsed at the southern end of the new I-280 bridge in East Toledo.

Rescue crews spent four hours recovering the dead as fellow construction workers held vigil in 20-degree weather and onlookers stood stunned at a construction project touted for its engineering ingenuity and safety record.

"It just looked like you pulling an erector set apart," witness Lee Timmons of East Toledo said.

Dead from the 2:22 p.m. accident were Robert Lipinski, Jr., 44, of Grand Rapids, Ohio, Mike Moreau, 30, of Lambertville, and Mike Phillips, 42, of South Toledo.

In Connecticut, the cranes collapsed at at the new Sikorsky Memorial Bridge on the Merritt Parkway.

The cranes were lifting a girder at about noon when one crane fell off its barge and into the Housatonic River, said Chris Cooper, a spokesman for the state Department of Transportation. The boom of the other crane snapped back, Cooper said.

Information on crane safety here.

Update here.