Crane Accidents for October 1999

Yesterday, the 29th of october, a 28 year old dogman was killed when roofing iron he was placing contacted powerlines. I think this is about the sixth or seventh death of a crane crew member due to electrical contact this year. The accident occured on a building site in Melbourne Victoria Austrailia.The young man was a friend and to me shows all of us involved in the crane industry must be more vigilant where power is concerned.

10/14/99: Tarboro, NC. A 65 ton Link-Belt crane was picking up a 17,000# precast concrete panel from a flatbed trailer. Four lifting points were used on the face and two on the top of the panel. Shake out hooks were used as a "lazy" method to release the panel hooks once the panel was vertical.                

The line to the shake out hooks drooped over the side of the panel as it was lifted. It caught on the bumper of the trailer and the panel was pulled forward with the trailer a short distance. The boom flexed just enough to sling shot the panel into the driving cab of this all-terrain crane, once the line released.

The cab was demolished at head level. There was no one coordinating the lift. The truck driver did not see the line caught. The tag line people were inexperienced and inattentive. The crane operator made the lift from a position where he could not see the panel. No damage other than property. See Photo

A crane being used on the addition to the main library toppled over, killing 50-year-old Dennis Fetzer of Tiffin.

The crane was being used to move cement onto the roof of the library expansion project. The cement was in a large construction bucket used for this purpose. The crane was parked on the Madison Street side of the project and was moving the container of cement into place, when something happened and the worked was fatally hit. Mr. Fetzer was an employee of Mosser Construction.

10/13/99: Crane Topples off Bridge
A crane operator escaped serious injuries yesterday when the crane toppled off a Bridge and fell about 80 feet to a muddy backwater area below.

October 11, 1999 Geismar, Louisiana A Terex/Lorain Crane Model RT450 was setup working a small pipe fab yard without proper cribbing under outriggers. The ground gave away and the grove which was swung over the side, came over. The boom came down on a scaffolding tent built to protect employees from weather and crushed a 19 year old man.

October 9, 1999: San Pedro, California A barge fitted with an American, (Unknown model) conventional crane on Friday, October 8, 1999, had it's boom collapse killing one longshoreman, and seriously injuring the crane operator, in the Port of Los Angeles.

Authorities did not release the identity of either victim. The crane's operator, 58, suffered broken bones and was taken to St. Mary's Hospital in Long Beach. The dead man, in his early 30s, was crushed when the crane boom buckled as the operator attempted to lift a dry-dock rail.

October 6, 1999: A Manitowoc crane boom collapsed at the North Bridge construction site in downtown Chicago this morning The media link is dead after only two days.