A Tuesday night accident involving a Florida Department of Transportation work truck reportedly left one person injured and trapped a worker inside the truck. The pair, whose names have not been released, were rescued thanks to the collective effort of firefighters from Miami-Dade Fire Rescue and Miramar Fire Rescue.
Erika Benitez, spokesperson for Miami-Dade Fire Rescue, told sources that the accident occurred after 10 p.m. south of the overpass near Florida’s Turnpike and Red Road in Miami. A car struck a work truck for unclear reasons and the impact wedged it under the truck causing it to be lifted “at least 20 feet in the air.” Both drivers were trapped inside their vehicles.
A technical rescue team was able to safely extract the person trapped inside the car and had them airlifted to a nearby hospital. The team had to use a ladder to get the worker, who was reportedly uninjured, out of the truck. Benitez said the rescue effort was a success thanks to the “well-coordinated efforts and mutual aid” of the firefighters and police officers from Broward Sheriff’s Office.
Miami Fire Rescue has been busy this month. Just last week, a team had to rescue a worker trapped on the 12th floor of an unfinished apartment building near Wynwood using a crane. Miami Fire Rescue Captain Ignatius Carroll told sources that the accident occurred at Pearl Midtown 29 on 190 NE 29th Street.
Debris reportedly feel on the worker’s leg and pinned him to the ground. Sean Murphy, the co-president of Coastal Construction, told the press that the worker had been trying to hitch up a crane boom by standing on a stack of formation materials, but the stack fell over and injured him.
Other workers called for help, but when a rescue team arrived at the scene, they purportedly learned that the building’s elevator only reached the sixth floor. Instead of carrying the injured man down six stories, Carroll reportedly chose to use a crane.
A technical rescue team hitched a basket to a crane and safely lowered the worker down 12 floors to the ground. He was taken for to Ryder Trauma Center for treatment. Coastal Construction is reportedly using in-house safety monitors to investigate the incident. The project has been stopped until the investigation is complete.