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Wind Turbine Topples To Ground In The Bronx, Destroys Billboard And Car

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - A wind turbine collapsed in the Bronx on Monday, setting off a frightening series of events.

The top of the structure fell, taking out a big billboard in a busy parking lot in Co-Op City, reports CBSN New York's Charlie Cooper.

A car was smashed to pieces and traffic backed up by Bartow and Baychester avenues, after part of a billboard, a pole and pieces of a wind turbine came down around 1:30 p.m.

According to CBS2's Vanessa Murdock, peak wind gusts hit 47 mph.

No one was reported hurt.

The Department of Buildings and first responders are working to get the situation under control.

What's angering neighbors and councilmembers is that more than a year and half ago they fought against the turbine being placed at that location.

Somehow the owner was able to get another pole up and put the wind turbine back up just two weeks ago.

"While you build something this tall in a neighborhood like this, imagine if the whole thing would have fallen over," said Bronx Councilman Andy King. "You're talking about crashing into a highway, crashing into buildings, crashing into stores."

"It just pulled apart like a helicopter propeller and the steeple that it was on came crashing down, and I'm seeing a lot of kids hang out over there. Thank god there wasn't a lot of kids hanging out over there because school wasn't out yet," witness Basil Rodriguez said.

"We were fortunate the car that got crushed, the owner wasn't sitting in his car," King said. "That would have been a death right then and there. So if anybody builds anything there needs to be better safety measures and they've got to follow the rules."

King said the city council is working to ensure the poles and turbine are gone as soon as possible. Mayor Bill de Blasio says an investigation into how this incident happened is underway.

Many roads in the area remained closed Monday evening, causing traffic to back up. Residents were advised to avoid the area.

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