Diane Stewart is used to the occasional construction noise coming from the work site near her Mueller neighborhood apartment In East Austin. But on Wednesday morning, she heard something that made her pause.

“It sounded like pipes falling. It was a loud crash; it made me turn,” Stewart said.

What Stewart heard was two construction cranes colliding, causing dozens of people beneath the cranes to flee. Medics responded at 9:38 a.m. to the site in the 1600 block of Robert Browning Street, just north of Mueller Lake Park near Dell Children’s Medical Center.

When medics arrived, they tended to 22 people, with 16 being taken to a hospital. EMS Capt. Darren Noak said none of the injuries was considered life-threatening.

People got injured while running from the crane collision, Noak said. He did not know what, if any, debris fell or hit the area near the cranes.

Rescuers did not make immediately clear what the extent of the injuries were or whether all the people injured were construction workers.

Hours later, investigators were still trying to figure out exactly what happened, but Austin Fire Battalion Chief Mark Bridges said the wires of the two cranes got tangled. A piece of one of the cranes broke off during the collision.

One operator was still in one of the cranes when officials spoke to reporters around 11 a.m. But Bridges said the operator was not in danger.

Stewart, the Mueller resident, was walking to Mueller Lake Park with her bird-watching binoculars around 9:30 a.m. when she heard the cranes crash. She was walking along Aldrich Street at the traffic circle outside the lake.

Stewart said she is used to hearing bangs or loud cement trucks at the construction site, but what she heard Wednesday morning sounded like a car crash.

“It was just crazy,” Stewart said. “First responders got here so fast. Kudos to them, man.”

A statement from Ascension Seton said the accident did not affect operations at Dell Children’s Medical Center.

Construction workers at the scene told the American-Statesman that their managers would handle media inquiries. Cadence McShane Construction officials did not immediately return requests for comment.

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