Lubbock Fire Rescue responded at about 11:30 a.m. Friday to a the report of a bridge collapse in the 1400 block of East Canyon Lakes Drive. There was one report of one person being seriously injured.
It appeared that a skid loader crossed a bridge and it collapsed under the skid loader.
Officials said the skid loader belongs to the City of Lubbock and the person driving it was a City of Lubbock employee. LFR and EMS were seen doing CPR on a person at the scene.
Officials said the employee was taken to University Medical Center and by Friday evening he was described as being in “critical but stable” condition.
According to Jeff McKito with the City of Lubbock, there were a total of five people taken to the hospital for injuries, two were firefighters and the other three were city employees.
The City of Lubbock issued the following statement late Friday:
A City of Lubbock Parks Department employee was injured this morning when a pedestrian bridge he drove over collapsed. Mark Fort was part of a two person team working to fill in holes with dirt in Mae Simmons Park when he drove a skid steer over the pedestrian bridge.
911 received a call for an industrial accident at 11:31 a.m. and fire rescue personnel responded to the park. Mr. Fort was extricated from the skid steer, which was submerged, at 11:41 a.m. and given CPR. He was taken to a local hospital where he is currently in stable condition. Mr. Fort is 57-years old and has worked for the city for just over two years. He is currently a heavy equipment operator in Parks Maintenance.
In all, five city employees, including Mr. Fort, were taken to the hospital. Two fire fighters for cuts sustained when breaking the windshield on the skid steer and two additional Parks employees were taken for undisclosed reasons, but those four have since been released.
