Cherry picker collapses, killing 2

ATLANTA,None — Federal investigators are trying to determine what caused a boom-lift to topple over outside a Northeast Atlanta apartment building and killed two contractors.

The crash happened at the end of Dallas Street at the new Old Fourth Ward park. Atlanta Fire Rescue said the two contractors were in a 40-foot high bucket putting new weatherproofing on the side of the apartment building. While moving the boom-lift to another location, investigators said they caught the side of a curb.

"It appears they were stuck over the curb in some soft ground, and in an attempt of jockeying the machine back and forth, it flipped and dumped them 40-feet down to the concrete."

Channel Two's Richard Elliot and photographer Patrick Moore were several hundred yards away on another story when they heard the crash as the boom-lift toppled over. Many other witnesses heard the crash as well.

"There was a big crash," said Dave Delchamps. He rushed over to see what he could do to help and saw the two contractors sprawled out on the ground.

"The first thing I saw was a guy's leg over the side of the bucket on the crane," said Delchamps. Another guy was in the grass. One was not moving. The other was just barely moving. I called 911. One of them was choking. So me, and a construction foreman and a police officer rolled him to his side to keep him from choking."

EMT's took both men to local hospitals, but they later died from their injuries.

Some witnesses said it was a very tragic accident.

"It's so sad," said Josh Perez. "I saw the guy in the ambulance. It was really bad."\

A memorial fund was set up at Wells Fargo Bank. Anyone wishing to make a donation can go to a local branch and make a donation to the Memorial Fund of Karl Turner.

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WSBTV