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Crane Related Accidents
May 2000
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About | Cache Copy | Cache Copy N/A |
Reports | By Company Name |
May Reports Received: 17
May Deaths: 7
Accident Reports Received for 2000: 76
Deaths to date for 2000: 33 (reported to this site)
Late reports are included in the above numbers.
1999 Statistics
ATTENTION! The numbers above indicate there is a great need for more training and safety awareness. Anyone having anything to do with cranes should take heed. The majority of the accidents were caused by human error. Translation: smart people doing dumb things.
Enhanced Reports — May 2000
 5/31/00: Michigan — Another power line death.
Doyle, I got your message at my office at the Michigan Road Builders Association last Friday. I do not know of many details of the accident which occurred in late May in Dundee Michigan. I do know that a worker was electrocuted, apparently the result of a crane boom striking an overhead power line.
This is a late post (6/19/00). If anyone can send more information, we would appreciate the update.
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| 5/27/00: A tree service company pretty much totaled their crane on Thursday. They bent the boom right in the center. The operator said he heard a loud grinding noise and then the boom bent. Upon further inspection, they actually twisted the whole truck frame. photo of bent boom |
5/21/00: London — Crane Accident with 3 fatalities.
| Dead Link |
Electronic Telegraph Two photos (best) | Dead Link |
Link to BBC One photo
Three workmen killed when a crane snapped in two and fell 400ft on to a building site have been named by police.
The men fell 25 storeys when the crane's cabin and boom sheared away from its masts while they were working on new offices for the HSBC bank in the shadow of Canary Wharf tower in Docklands, East London.
The dead have been named as Peter Thomas Clark, 33, of Tower Bridge Road, Southwark, London; Martin Burgess, 31, of Robin Hood Street, Castleford, West Yorkshire; and Michael David Whittard, 39, of Stone Bridge Lane, Rothwell Lane, Leeds.
The three men were in the cabin, working to jack it up to another level when the accident happened shortly after 4pm on
Sunday.
11/19/03 Update: Crane widows to sue over deaths
8/24/03 Update: Hewden faces £16m bill over crane deaths
5/21/03 update: Crane Tragedy - Three Years On May 22 2003
11/11/03 update: Inquest Held Photo | Dead Link |
11/13/03 update: Crane deaths 'a mystery'
Related Links
AGD Equipment
Canary Wharf Group
IHI Europe Ltd.
5/27/04: Crane Claims | Cache Copy |
Two of the widows of the HSBC crane tragedy will face their husbands' former employer in court.
6/27/05: HSE rules evidence insufficient in Canary Wharf crane collapse
| Cache Copy |
3/30/06: Relatives of crane collapse victims hope to prosecute
| Cache Copy |
5/10/07: Hewden crane collapse case to be heard in UK
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5/21/00: A 130 ton Demag slid off road near Newcastle, Australia.
See photo |
Not crane related, but interesting. May 19, 2000: Fire
destroys two city blocks in Tampa, Florida.
| Dead Link | | Cache Copy |
Witnesses said a forklift at an apartment building under construction hit a power line, causing a spark that set the building on fire. The apartment building and a post office across the street were both destroyed, along with several thousand pieces of mail.
Contractor: Texican Construction Corp. OSHA
Report
October 5, 2000 Update: OSHA fines levied
May 25, 2000 Update: Forklift driver wasn't trained
Editor's comments: Far too many contractors have a total disregard for safety, safety laws, rules and regulations. Fortunately, no one was killed or injured this time. Hopefully, the dollar loss will be an incentive to use a qualified operator the next time.
Following is an excerpt from the above article:
“Preston said in an interview that he wasn't interested in Crane Tech's classes. He said OSHA's regulations were just another way for government agencies to take money from the construction industry.
“They bleed us,” he said of the regulations.
Sir, your failure to obey those regulations, (like them or not) just &“bled” someone to the tune of about $40 million dollars. Don't blame government regulations for that! This accident is a classic example of why we have such regulations and the consequences of not obeying them.
Also mentioned in the above article, a worker was killed just last month on the same project. Worker dies after being crushed by steel beams. |
5/16/00: Crane collapsed onto truck at school construction site.
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Boxford, MA -- State and federal safety officials were notified yesterday about a crane accident at Masconomet Regional High School, where a $54 million building project is underway.
The accident occurred at 9:55 a.m. after a cable crane operator apparently left the machine "but did not set the brake property on the cable drum," said Boxford Police Lt. Robert Hazelwood.
The crane eventually collapsed onto an 18-wheeler truck on the school site at 20 Endicott Road, Hazelwood said. No injuries resulted, he added.
However, the state's Department of Public Safety as well as federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration offices were notified of the accident, Hazelwood said. |
5/13/00: Crane crash won't delay OSU arena
| Dead Link | | Cache Copy |
Stillwater, Oklahoma — An accident Friday on the roof of
Gallagher-Iba Arena will not cause a delay in the opening of
the remodeled and expanded structure, an Oklahoma State
University official said.
The upper part of a crane lifting a steel beam onto the roof
snapped and caused the beam to fall onto the roof, said
Nestor Gonzales, a university spokesman. |
5/12/00: On May 9, 2000 — A 90 ton P&H turned over while lifting 4700 pounds at a 108' radius.
The crew could not quite reach where they had to put the load so the helper pulled the load with a tag line, which took the load out of its safe working radius, resulting in the accident. See Photos (8) (some are large w/slow load time) Lots of good training school material here. |
 5/9/00: Chicago, Illinois — Tower Crane accident at East River construction project in Chicago. | Dead Link |
One killed and others injured. Patrick Bauer, 28, a service technician working on the crane, was pronounced dead at the scene. | Cache Copy |
May 22, 2000 Update: Work halted at site of fatal crane
accident
The City of Chicago has ordered work stopped at a construction site at McClurg and Illinois where one worker was killed and two others were seriously injured May 9th.
The accident occurred when a metal cable on a crane apparently snapped, sending a load of steel beams plunging to the ground. Building Commissioner Mary Richardson-Lowry said Sunday she ordered the stoppage until an engineering report is received detailing why the cable snapped and whether the base of the building under construction was damaged.
5/31/00: City Lets Work Resume At Crane Accident Site | Dead Link |
5/12/00: Inspectors determined that the crane should be dismantled after they found several fractures on its framework. | Dead Link |
5/23/00: City awaits reports on crane accident | Dead Link |
Morse Diesel — Project Construction Manager
Morrow Equipment — Tower Crane owner
More about Morrow Equipment
On October 6, 1999 a crane used to build a hotel at Rush and Illinois Streets collapsed and injured the operator. Danny's Construction Co., of Shakopee, Minn., operated that crane. Morse Diesel was the general contractor on that project too. See story and several exclusive photos. |
5/09/00: Iron Mountain — Crane mishap disrupts power for thousands
Approximately 6,000 Wisconsin Electric customers were without electric service for about 35 minutes this morning.
According to the information we received, the power outage occurred when a crane, owned by Schneiders Iron & Metal Inc., of Kingsford, Michigan, came in contact with a 69,000-volt line doing damage to the line.
The line was isolated for repairs by a Wisconsin Electric crew.
The south end of Iron Mountain, most of Kingsford and the Aurora-Homestead area were without power from approximately 7 a.m. to 7:35 a.m.
It was also reported that when the crane touched the line there was a momentary outage of several seconds affecting an additional 4,000 customers in the remainder of Iron Mountain and Kingsford.
The outage affected traffic signals at several intersections, but no serious accidents were reported, authorities said. |
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