Crane tips over, knocking out electricity for a few traffic signals

ORLANDO, Fla. (FOX 35 WOFL) - UPDATE: SGL Constructors confirmed on January 25th, 2018, that they are still working toward the removal of the crane and that they anticipate the operation may run into or through the weekend.

Crews with the I-4 Ultimate project are working to remove a large construction crane that toppled Wednesday morning.  

The crane fell to the State Road 408 on-ramp along Division Avenue just after 5:15 a.m. The Orlando Police Department said nobody was seriously injured. There was only damage to equipment and construction material.

There’s no exact timeline to remove the equipment, but a spokesperson for the construction team said Wednesday that they hoped to break down and move the crane overnight.  The exact cause of the topple is still under investigation.

James Headley from the Crane Institute of America in Sanford watched reports of the crane collapse closely Wednesday morning. 

"My first thought was: how many people got killed or seriously hurt?” said Headley,  “and then I heard no one got killed or hurt and I thought: that's miraculous."

Headley said accidents with moveable cranes, like the one along SR 408, are seen a lot in the construction industry. He said those cranes aren’t actually anchored to the ground so they are prone to tipping if not weighed out right, they can slide or have surfaces beneath them give out, or sometimes things just break.

"Sometimes you don't cover all the bases and sometimes you cover the bases but maybe you don't cover them the way you should, and so you have a lot of accidents,” said Headley.

Headley said any number of factors could have occurred in the downtown topple.