A Coast Guard official said that a crane fell into the water Tuesday afternoon on the under-construction portion of the Twin Spans.

The St. Tammany Fire Department added that a crewman fell into the water as well, but was been rescued and transported to a nearby hospital. The extent of the injuries is unknown. The incident happened just after 1 p.m. near the Orleans Parish and St. Tammany Parish lines.

An eyewitness said that as he was crossing the Twin Spans he saw tires in the water, as well as a person lying on the ground. He added that there were first responders on the scene.

The unidentified man was sent plummeting Lake Pontchartrain after falling from the crane.  The worker was operating a small crane and was in the process of moving a small load when he fell from the crane into the lake. The crane fell into the water after the crewman fell.

DOTD spokesman Mark Lambert said one of the contractor’s boats was used to rescue the crane operator from the water. The workers performed CPR on the man after he was rescued.

DOTD will be reviewing safety procedures, according to Lambert, but, for now, work is continuing on the Twin Spans.  Lambert said that since this appears to an isolated incident DOTD is not halting construction.   

“The two accidents that happened within months of each other on the Twin Spans, one at the end of October, in which a girder beam rolled off its pier into Lake Pontchartrain taking some employees with it, is in no way related with incident that happened today. It is two separate and distinctly different accidents,” said Vic Gremillion, Boh Bros. safety director.

For now, work is suspended on the end of the Twin Spans where the accident occured, while OSHA and Boh Bros. investigate the cause of the accident.

“Clearly, these jobs are not without exposure,” said St. Tammany Fire Chief Larry Hess. “Big equipment around a large number of people in a very confined area, and clearly there is exposure to safety issues on jobs like this.”

The accident comes after construction worker Eric Blackmon, 44, was killed in October when a 70-ton, 135-foot concrete girder broke free from a section of the new Twin Span, crashing more than 30 feet below. Nine other workers were thrown into the water, and three were taken to the hospital for injuries.

Blackmon’s family has filed a suit against two companies, the “Gulf Coast Pre-Stress” and the “Volkert Construction Services,” which oversaw the project. Boh Brothers performed the construction on the bridge in that accident.