DALLAS — The dramatic accident created a striking scene - a huge drivable crane tilted back like a see-saw.

The crane was about to lower a large industrial white pump weighing more than 18,000 pounds, heavier than a LearJet, down through the roof of this building.

But the crane apparently extended too far.

The boom bent and the nine-ton pump came crashing down.

"It was just too heavy,” said Sherrie Lopez, Dallas Fire-Rescue spokeswoman. “The counterbalance wasn't right. The crane has come up off the ground."

A 56-year-old city worker on the roof got pinned between it and the boom. Rescuers freed him with two broken legs and took him to Parkland Hospital.

"We did have one employee who was on the ground in a truck which this pipe fell on,” Lopez added.

Fortunately the pump fell on the passenger side. The employee was in the driver's seat but still suffered head injuries.

Neither of their names have been released. Their conditions are unknown.

Louisiana Crane Company owns the rig and was operating it when the accident happened. Federal records from OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, indicate the company has a safe operating record. Only one accident in the last five years, records showed, and it was eventually cleared from the company’s record.

The crane industry has had a notorious year after numerous high-profile collapses.

Two deadly ones have happened in New York. One in Miami.

The most recent in North Texas happened at the new Cowboys Stadium in June. Two construction workers got hurt there.

The industry remains unregulated. Contractors police themselves.

Despite the seriousness of this accident, the crane and the pump fell in an ideal place, a narrow area between two sets of electrical lines. A few feet either way could have been deadly.

E-mail jwhitely@wfaa.com.