Man rescued from crane after suffering leg injury in White Plains
WHITE PLAINS, New York (WABC) -- A worker had to be lowered from a crane after suffering a broken leg on Wednesday.
The scary incident happened at a construction site on 200 Hamilton Ave. in White Plains.
Newscopter 7 was over the scene, capturing the high stakes rescue above downtown White Plains.
The construction worker was working on a crane boom, helping to build a massive apartment building, when he suffered what firefighters describe as a "crushing" injury.
The resulting compound fracture left him in pain, and unable to get down on his own.
"Believe it or not, this is something we train on," said Lieutenant Bill Simons of the White Plains Fire Department. "Lowering someone down from a crane, we train on it fairly often."
Officials say he broke his tibia and fibula.
White Plains Fire and Police Department were able to strategically rescue the worker and get him down, gently lowering him nearly 200 feet to the roof of the building under construction.
Once they lowered him to the ground, he was put on a stretcher and taken to a nearby hospital.
No word on what happened up on the crane that led to the injury.
White Plains is booming with high rises sprouting up everywhere. That's why the city's Department of Public Safety invested heavily in training for just this type of emergency.
"We anticipated with the amount of cranes in the city of White Plains that this could one day happen," said Lt. Simons. "Sure enough, today it did."
The victim was hospitalized for treatment for that broken leg, but when he gets out, he'll have quite a story to tell... about his accident in the sky - and his hair-raising return to earth.
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