Washington state regulators have launched an inquiry with four companies that were dismantling a huge construction crane at a new Google campus in Seattle when it collapsed Saturday, killing four people.
Two workers on the project and two people in separate cars below died when the tower crane fell just before 3.30pm at Google’s new campus at Fairview Ave. and Mercer St., Seattle Fire Department said.Â
Among the dead was Sara Wong, a first-year nursing student at Seattle Pacific University.
The university said it grieved “the sudden and tragic loss of our precious student”.
The Washington Department of Labor and Industries (L&I) has opened investigations with four companies involved in taking the crane apart, reports The Seattle Times.Â
“Our goal is to pick this apart and understand what happened,” an L&I spokesman told the Times, adding the investigation does not imply wrongdoing at this stage, and that the investigation would take months.
Witnesses and the National Weather Service said powerful winds hit the area when the crane was being dismantled, the Times reported.Â
Image: Seattle Fire Department photograph published on Twitter shows the crane on the street and damage to the building
