A falling crane crushed cars in Seattle, killing a college student, a Marine and 2 others
A freshman college student at Seattle Pacific University was among the four people killed Saturday afternoon when a construction crane fell from a building into traffic on one of the city's most busy thoroughfares.
Sarah Wong, 19, died when the crane - erected for the construction of a Google campus, according to the Seattle Times - landed on six vehicles driving on Mercer Street. Wong was in an Uber with a friend when the crane fell on their vehicle, reported CBS 2 in Los Angeles.
"She spread so much love, encouragement and kindness to everyone around her," Lauren Tan, a friend of Wong's, told CBS 2. "Most importantly, she was like my sister and one of my closest friends."
Wong, a California native, was planning to major in nursing, the university said.
"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," Seattle Pacific University said in a statement.
Iron Workers Local 86 announced that 31-year-old Andrew Yoder was one of two ironworkers killed in the crane accident. A union representative told KOMO News that Yoder was a young father, a devout Christian and a Marine.
"When he died, we lost one of the best people that I and many people know," Chris McClain, a trustee for Local 86, told KOMO.
The King County Medical Examiner's Office has said it will release the names of all four victims of the fatal accident Monday.
Seattle police and fire personnel first responded to Fairview Avenue and Mercer Street about 3:30 p.m. Saturday. Fire officials said that by the time rescuers arrived, three men and one woman had died - two ironworkers who were in the crane when it fell and two people who were in cars, including Wong.
Harborview Medical Center admitted three patients: a man and woman in their mid-20s and a female infant. Two were discharged late Saturday, according to the newsroom for the University of Washington Health Sciences, and the third patient was in stable condition.
"This is a tragic day in Seattle with this catastrophic incident in the heart of our city," Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan said in a statement Saturday. But, she said, the city also saw "some miracles," such as a 25-year-old mother and her 4-month-old daughter who survived despite being trapped inside one of the cars crushed by the crane.
The cause of the collapse is under investigation, Durkan said. "It will take time," he said. The state's Department of Labor and Industries is assessing the need for road repairs where the crane landed.
The National Weather Service tweeted that a storm brought gusts of wind reaching 23 mph around the time of the collapse but said the gusts were probably not strong enough to have caused it.
Seattle has seen a recent rise in building construction and tower cranes, according to the Associated Press, but Saturday marked the first crane accident in the city since 2006.
Frank Kuin, a journalist from Montreal, told the AP he felt the floor shake in his Seattle hotel and heard a "big bang," initially thinking he was experiencing an earthquake.
Motorists left their cars and ran toward the noise, where Kuin saw three crushed cars beneath the crane.
"To imagine what happened to those people who just happened to be driving by was quite shocking," Kuin said.