Near miss at Swing Bridge as crane crashes

A major disaster was narrowly averted in Belize City this morning as a crane collapsed at the site of the Swing Bridge renovation. Around eleven thirty one of two cranes currently working on the project, buckled under the weight of a thirteen hundred pound wrecking ball that was being used to break up the bridge’s cement deck. The falling boom of the crane, which had been working from the North Front Street side of the bridge, just missed hitting a woman who was bathing in the Haulover Creek and crashed into the ticket office of the Rainbow Runner. The boom also flattened a small skiff near the Rainbow Runner office, while the wrecking ball fell into the water. No one was hurt in the freak accident and by one o’clock this afternoon, work had resumed on the bridge.