Crane accidents Archives

Crane overturns in Lichtenstein

A mobile swing cab industrial crane overturned last week in Balzers, Lichtenstein, while picking & carrying a large concrete panel.

The crane an 18 tonne Bollhalder Bakran 90, with an articulated boom, owned by Autokran Ag Rheintal was travelling close to an embankment leading down to a stream when the swinging load took the crane over sideways. Fortunately the operator was unhurt. And quick action by the fire service managed to prevent any serious contamination of the stream.

A large All Terrain crane was called in to lift the overturned machine back onto its wheels.

Dropped beam proves fatal

A 20 metre steel I-beam slipped from a mobile crane in Barra Mansa to the south of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil last month killing an elderly pedestrian.

The beam – part of a steel building – was being lifted by a Sany truck crane owned by the rental company Jocar, when its slipped out of the slings and dropped into the street below. It landed on a woman, Orecina Marta de Souza, 79, killing her instantly.

The incident occurred on Friday the 13th as she walked past the construction site – a hotel – with her son when it happened. He was also injured in the incident.

Crane overturn in Singapore

A mobile crane overturned yesterday at a job site in the Jurong area of Singapore near the port and main industrial area of the city.

The incident caused work on the site – where contractor Yong Xing Construction is building a new electrical substation – to be suspended while the Ministry Of Manpower (MOM) carried out an investigation.

The crane, rented from Beng Huat Crane, was apparently booming out at the time it overturned, we do not know if it had a load on the hook.

Crane dropped in tandem lift

Two ship cranes dropped a large mobile telescopic crane they were lifting in tandem at Fremantle port in Australia on Tuesday.

The hoist rope on one of the two cranes clearly failed dropping one end of the crane which then slipped from both sets of rigging. The mobile crane dropped into the ship’s hold, sending those working in the area scurrying for safety. One man was caught by the falling mass and suffered minor injuries.

The local union claims that the ship based employees carrying out the lift were not qualified under Australian regulations. The lift was clearly being carried out in a slapdash manner with one of the hoist lines not directly over the load, therefore applying a side load. It also looks like one crane might be carrying more of the load than the other?

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) has detained the vessel while it investigates the incident. Click here to view a video of the incident.

Unstable crane closes road

The boom of a lattice crawler crane threatened to come down today across a major road and power lines in Chesterfield Virginia.

The crane a Terex crawler owned by Corman Construction was working on a road project when the boom started to go over the back. Fortunately it didn’t and worked on the site used web slings to try and anchor the boom in order to prevent the crane losing stability and overturning. An All Terrain was then called in to try and help lower the boom.

The utility company cut the power lines, while the police closed the road. As far as we know the recovery is ongoing. We are not quite sure what caused the boom to get into this condition. Although early indications are either a recoil effect from an unplanned load release or overluffing.

Winds overturn crane

A large crawler crane working on the new Timsah Arena Stadium, in Bursa Turkey came down over the weekend in strong storms, killing the driver of a passing car.

The crane boom, luffing jib and derrick mast went over the back of the machine and across the Bursa-İzmir highway, with the jib striking a passing taxi, killing its driver- Fatih Demirkıran. A woman passenger was seriously injured and is in a critical condition in hospital.