Crane Collapses at Stadium in Arlington, Texas

ARLINGTON (CBS 11 News) ―

Three people are injured after a crane accident at the still-under-construction Dallas Cowboys stadium in Arlington.

Cowboys spokesman Brett Daniels tells CBS 11 News the accident happened while workers were in the process of assembling the crane.  One of the cables being used to assemble the crane either broke or became disconnected.

Arlington Fire Department Battalion Chief Bill McQuatters said it's possible that a back support structure on the crane failed, but it's too early to know for sure.

In a press release sent out Thursday afternoon Manhattan Construction, the company responsible for building the new Cowboys stadium, said, "While assembling a crawler crane on site, a cable connector on the erecting crane failed, allowing the crane's cables to fall.  The boom being assembled was on the ground and had not yet been attached to the crane."

According to the company three employees on the top of the crane's cab were injured when they jumped to avoid the falling parts.

Arlington firefighters on the scene say one man was critically hurt and was taken to Baylor Hospital in Dallas by air ambulance. Chopper 11 showed emergency technicians working on the man as they loaded him into the helicopter.

The two other workers were taken to hospitals in ground ambulances with unknown injuries. None of the workers are thought to have life-threatening injuries.

A witness to the accident told CBS 11's Katherine Blake that she heard a "loud noise."  She said she then saw part of the crane on the ground.

The $1 billion Cowboys stadium is scheduled to open for the 2009 football season. The new stadium will have a retractable roof and seat some 80,000 fans.

This is the second crane accident in the Dallas-Fort Worth area in as many days.  Click here for the story of Wednesday's accident.

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Worker Dies In Dallas Crane Accident DALLAS (AP) ― A crane accident near downtown Dallas left one worker dead Wednesday after a piece of equipment fell from a cable and struck him, police said.

Televised images showed workers examining part of an apparently damaged cable extending from a crane atop an unfinished building that is several stories high.

The name of the worker was not immediately released because the family had not been notified as of Wednesday evening, said Matt Papenfus, general manager of Turner Construction.

The employee did not work for Turner but for a subcontractor called TXI, Papenfus said. TXI did not immediately return a phone message Wednesday.

Federal safety officials will help investigate the cause of the accident on Thursday. Work at the site, which will be a high-rise condominium complex, is on hold until the investigation is complete.

"We are cooperating fully with the investigations," Papenfus told The Associated Press. "Operations will not continue until that inspection shows that everything is OK."

Papenfus said Turner has one other construction site in Dallas involving a crane, and that crane was inspected Tuesday.

"We want to extend our condolences to the family and reiterate our commitment to safety by both policy and practice," Papenfus said.

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