A multi million dollar crane crashes in Vero Beach as residents raise concern

INDIAN RIVER COUNTY, Fla. (CBS12) — Crews are still working to pull a multi-million dollar, six-axle crane out of a ditch along 90th Avenue near Oslo Road in Vero Beach, after it went off the road and flipped on August 19th. For people who live nearby, the crash is the latest example of a problem they say they’ve been warning the county about for months.

Sally Rogers lives down the road from where the crane came to rest. She said August 19th was when she first noticed the crane in the ditch. She drives this stretch of 90th Avenue constantly.

“Every single day,” Rogers said, when asked how often she travels the road. She said she has driven it for 11 years.

Rogers said this is not the first crash she has seen on this stretch of road, which she describes as narrow. She said she does not know for certain what caused each past crash, but she believes the road itself is part of the problem.

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Rogers pointed to a recent detour as the reason commercial trucks are on this road at all. She said crews closed 82nd Avenue and rerouted traffic for the Oslo Road project, and drivers looking for a fast route to State Road 60 and I-95 found this road instead.

“The dump trucks and the semi trucks have learned that this is a thruway to 60 to get on 95,” Rogers said. “It’s quick, it’s easy, it’s a straight shot.”

Rogers said there is no signage warning drivers the road narrows, and she said dump trucks are not supposed to be using this route at all under the project’s haul route plan. She said trucks were assigned to 82nd Avenue, and only started coming this way once that road closed.

Rogers also raised concerns about a bridge at 4th Street, saying she has not seen a posted weight limit and doesn’t know whether it can structurally handle the heavier commercial traffic now crossing it.

She described another hazard when it rains. Water pools on the low side of the road and has nowhere to drain, she said, which hides what’s underneath.

“You don’t know if there’s a hole. You don’t know if there’s a soft spot. You don’t know if there’s a washout happening,” Rogers said.

Rogers said the traffic has made her change her own driving habits. When she sees a truck or semi approaching on the narrower sections, she said she pulls over and waits.

“I stopped on the bridge, pulled off on the side there at 4th Street and waited for the semi to come and pass, because I know it’s not wide enough to comfortably pass,” Rogers said. “I’d rather not.”

She recounted a close call involving her husband, who was driving his Dodge 3500 dually when he passed another truck pulling a trailer on the road.

“The trailers actually touched,” Rogers said.

Rogers said she has asked Indian River County to conduct a traffic study on the road. She said the response so far has been noncommittal.

“Maybe we’ll do that, but I think right now we should wait,” Rogers said the county told her.

Her request now is simple: she wants county officials to come see the road for themselves.

“They need to come out. They need to lay eyes on it,” Rogers said. “Take a field trip. Bring a county dump truck to go the opposite direction, and pass the county dump truck in the narrowest part of the road.”

Crews remain on scene working to remove the crashed crane.

CBS12 News is asking the county if they plan on adding signage or directing trucks to go a different route. County officials say they’re looking into the matter.

FDOT confirmed that this stretch of 90th Ave. is maintained by Indian River County.

90th Ave. between 4th Street and Oslo Road will be closed until the truck is removed.