A construction lift toppled over in Center City Monday afternoon, killing the man at the controls, crushing nearby cars and trees. Three people on the ground were hurt by falling debris.
"There was no time for anything, it just happened so fast," said bystander Bruce Hornung, who was taking groceries to his car when he saw the accident.
James Wilson, the machine's operator, was in the bucket of the machine, 125 feet in the air at 21st and Walnut. He appeared to be turning the lift when a wheel rolled over a sidewalk grate that gave way, witnesses told the Philadelphia Inquirer. The machine teetered, then fell, slamming into a building and then the street. The fall killed Wilson, 40. Investigators want to know if he was strapped into his bucket properly.
Falling debris hit a 70-year old woman who was walking by, breaking her arm and two people inside Hornung's car were treated for minor injuries as well.
"I heard a popping sound," Hornung told the Inquirer. "As I'm watching, [the lift] starts coming down. The lightpole comes down and it falls onto the building...Five more feet and it would have fallen on top of the car."
The cable television grate provides access to a tunnel below the street. It's made from fiberglass and reinforced concrete and could not support the machine's weight, according to investigators.
Traffic in the area was snarled throughout much of the afternoon as streets and sidewalks were closed.
Wilson was using the lift to check the stonework of the First Presbyterian Church, according to Reverend Jesse Garner who told the Inquirer that the church hired Masonry Preservation Group of Merchantville, N.J. for the survey.
Read this story and more right on your iPhone. Download the NBCPhiladelphia app NOW!
