Crane accidents Archives | Page 7 of 8

Two all terrain cranes overturned in Venezuela

The incident occurred at the site of the Tamanaco station on Line five of the Caracas Metro, miraculously no one was hurt or injured.

We understand that the cranes, reportedly two 100 tonne Liebherr LTM1100-5 owned by Grúas y Transporte Libertador, were working from opposite sides of a large access shaft, and tandem lifting a large truss beam onto the top of the shaft, when the outriggers on one crane sank into the ground causing it to overturn and then pulling the other crane over.

One crane simply turned onto its side, while the other tipped into the shaft and eventually slipped all the way in. It also punctured a diesel storage tank as it went in, which then leaked out in to the street resulting in a road closure.

[youtube_advanced url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_o_oTem5C4″ controls=”no”]

Crane fatality in Boston

A man was died after a six tonne steel beam arch dropped from an overhead crane at Boston Bridge & Steel on 9 december.

The man – one of four men working in the vicinity at the time – was Marco Antonio Huezo Mancea, 46. Originally from El Salvador he has worked in the USA for 12 years and has a wife, son, and two daughters living in El Salvador.

The local police say that he was pronounced dead at the scene, an investigation into what went wrong is ongoing.

Crane accident in Bergen

The boom of a loader crane collapsed yesterday dropping a skip onto two vehicles in Bergen, Norway – in a street close to the city’s main shopping centre.

The crane, a Fassi owned by Svanco Transport, was lifting the skip down from the fifth floor of a building with a fully extended seven section boom and four section jib when the second hydraulic boom section either snapped or came out of the lower section. Both the boom and skip came down onto the two vehicles, one of which was completely crushed. The drivers had to be cut from the vehicles but fortunately only suffered minor injuries.

An investigation is currently underway to determine the cause of the incident which is thought to have been captured on CCTV.

A guy who lives in Bergen, said: “I have to say, that it seems to be very common around Bergen to use loader cranes to lift and lower items onto the roof of buildings during maintenance or refurbishment. The work often takes place above busy areas, with little or no coning-off or restrictions to traffic or pedestrian access during the lift.”

Mobile tower crane over in Netherlands

A self-erecting mobile tower crane has gone over in a shopping street in Nieuwegein, on the south side of Utrecht in the Netherlands, no one is hurt and damage is relatively minor.

The incident occurred just before 8:00 this morning and thankfully the operator was on the ground, and not in the elevating operators cab. He was apparently in the process of lifting materials onto the roof at the time.

The rear outrigger of the crane, a Spierings owned by Nederhof crane rental, punched through the block street surface into a void or soft foundation material.

Fatal crane collapse at Sao Paulo World Cup stadium

Two people age 40 and 42, have died, following the collapse of a crawler crane at Sao Paulo’s Arena Corinthians stadium which is due to host the opening ceremony for the 2014 football World Cup.

The boom of the crane, a 1,350 tonne capacity Liebherr LR11350 owned by Brazil’s largest crane company Locar, appears to have gone over the back of the machine breaking the superstructure connections and landing on the roof of the stadium.

The crane which was working with suspended derrick mast counterweight was specifically brought in to install the large roof structure.

Below is a video of the fatal crane collapse at Sao Paulo.

[youtube url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7goCgk0JWE”]

All terrain crane overturned in Germany

A 750 tonne All Terrain crane overturned yesterday on a wind farm in Germany as it was moving – partially rigged – between turbine installation areas.

The crane, a new Liebherr LTM 1750-9.1 owned by Cologne based crane specialist Colonia, had already completed its work on two turbines at the wind farm in Düren-Echtz – between Aachen and Cologne – and was moving along one of the wind farm roads to the third turbine, when it went over.

Local police say that a strong gust of wind caught the crane, but this was most likely combined with the uneven ground at the point where it went over. The crane was said to have overturned slowly, which suggests that some of the wheels had left the main part of the road. It was rigged with an extension and jib and had most of its counterweight in place.

The operator was rescued from his cab by the emergency services and was taken to hospital suffering from shock. No one else was hurt in the incident, although the crane which was delivered in July will have sustained some serious damage.