Crane Accident Halts Work At Cowboys New Stadium

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) – A cable snapped as a construction crane was being lifted off the ground Thursday at the Dallas Cowboys’ enormous new stadium, injuring at least three people, a team spokesman said.

Cowboys spokesman Brett Daniels said one worker was hit by the cable and care-flighted to a hospital. Two other workers who managed to jump out of the way of the cable were taken to a hospital by ambulance, Daniels said.

There was no immediate word on the workers’ conditions, Daniels said. All three were conscious when they left the site, said Jack Hill, director of stadium construction for the team.

Emergency officials didn’t immediately return calls seeking comment.

A spokeswoman at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas confirmed all three were brought to the hospital from the accident scene, but could not provide more information.

The more than $1 billion retractable-roof stadium is scheduled to open for the 2009 season and will be home to the 2011 Super Bowl. The 80,000-seat stadium is expected to be the world’s largest column-free room, with retractable panels.

All three workers were wearing protective safety equipment at the time of the accident, Hill said. They all work for a subcontractor called Derr Steel Erection, which did not immediately respond to a phone message.

There are about 1,300 workers and about a dozen cranes at the site, Hill said. Construction will not halt, although an investigation of the accident is expected. The team has been working with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and “we have a very good relationship with them,” Hill said.

“We are very safety conscious, and this is a very unfortunate accident,” Hill said. “We don’t know the root cause and will certainly do an investigation and try to understand what happened.”

There had been only a few minor worker injuries since construction began and the project has a good safety record, Arlington Mayor Robert Cluck said.

“Being a major project like this, with lots of moving parts, there’s the risk of injuries, but I hate it when they do occur,” Cluck said from the scene.

Shortly after the accident, crews in orange vests and hard hats were back at work throughout the sprawling site.

Thursday’s accident came a day after a crane hook plummeted to the ground in Dallas and killed a worker after a cable snapped.

Workers were examining part of an apparently damaged cable extending from a crane atop a several-story unfinished building at the time of the accident.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)