Thursday, July 24, 2008; Posted: 6:35 p.m. (CDT)
Oklahoma City -- A man is dead after a terrible construction accident. Crews were working on a church that's under construction near S.W. 134th and I-44 when a crane fell over on top of a car. KSBI-TV's Kealey McIntire has more.
Investigators had few details as to how the accident happened. Crews were trying to put the steeple on top of the future South Pointe Church when the crane suddenly fell.
The accident happened around 10:00 a.m. Church members and officials are now trying to cope with what happened.
What was supposed to be a glorious day for the future South Pointe Church ended with firefighters and crime scene tape blocking off what became a tragic scene.
Winfred Stafford, 79, a long time church member and friend of Pastor Joe Hancock died when a crane fell on top of his car.
"What I know about the gentleman who was here this morning involved in this accident was that he was a great Christian, a man who knew God personally and a man who walked with God for many years," says Hancock.
Hancock was on the other side of the building when he noticed something started to go wrong.
"The steeple was not more than ten feet off the ground. They had just started to pick it up and all of a sudden I saw it start to drop and I thought, well, why are they lowering it and then I looked up and the crane had collapsed," says Hancock.
The man had parked his car in the parking lot to watch the steeple being raised, a pivotal moment for any church's history. Tragedy struck instead of him witnessing that historic moment.
"It's a huge loss. Anytime you lose someone that's really a foundational part of the congregation those kind of people are irreplaceable," says Hancock.
Firefighters say the Stafford's wife was able to get out after the boom of the crane fell on top of the car, but the man was pronounced dead at the scene. Deputy Chief Cecil Clay says they don't know what happened.
"There was a catastrophic failure of the crane, it turned over and it was just a fluke accident that it hit the car in the parking lot," says Clay.
The church has been under construction for more than two years. Hancock says it won't be the same without his friend when it opens in October.
The names of the couple has not been released yet.
The woman who got out of the car was taken to a local hospital with minor injuries.
Barnhart Crane and Rigging is involved in the construction. We called their Memphis office to find out what happened, but phone calls weren't returned.
OSHA was out investigating Thursday afternoon.
The church is currently located at S.W. 55th and Youngs Blvd and is known as Grace Assembly of God. Hancock says he doesn't know yet how to address the situation on Sunday.
