NEW YORK — A giant crane toppled off the new Tappan Zee Bridge being constructed north of New York City and collapsed across the busy span it is replacing, halting traffic Tuesday afternoon on the key suburban highway crossing.
No cars were hit by the crane’s arm as it came down around noon, but Rockland County Executive Ed Day wrote on Twitter that three people suffered minor injuries when vehicles swerved and stopped to avoid the wreckage.
Video from a news helicopter showed at least one person being removed from a car and loaded into an ambulance.
Nicholas D'Emealio, 21, of Irvington, New York, was in a vehicle about three football fields away from the crane, toward the center of the bridge, when he heard a bang and his driver slammed on the brakes.
“It shook the whole bridge,” he said. “At first I thought the bridge was collapsing because this is not a good bridge.”
