Crane Accident

Crews were cleaning up a construction site after a crane overturned in north Houston on Friday. Officials said the crane, which was being used for a Metro Rail project, was picking up re-barb at 1650 North Main near Hogan when it toppled over around10:45 a.m.

This week one machine has dropped two seven tonne transmission towers alone. Early on Tuesday morning the Sun Bird Erickson air crane helicopter placing a tower close to a highway near San Diego in California, dropped a the load from a height of more than 70 metres. We understand that the highway was closed for the lift and no one was injured.

A crane crashed into a house in Shoreview, Minnesota – near St Paul -yesterday after it tipped while lifting a large hot tub into the back yard. The crane, a four axle Grove truck crane owned and operated by local crane rental company Truck Crane Service Company of Eagan, Minnesota. The crane was properly set up with outrigger mats in place and all outriggers fully extended.

A female crane operator was injured yesterday, suffering two broken arms and a broken leg, after the crawler crane she was operating – a vintage Link Belt- tipped over sideways trapping her in the cab.

The company was preparing to re-roof the building, but when the operator raised the first pack of materials, the crane lost stability and tipped, coming to rest against the leading edge of the building.

A young Rough Terrain crane operator died earlier this week in Arizona, when the crane ran-away’ and overturned. The operator,28, was driving the crane, described as a 100 ton Rough Terrain – although it is substantially smaller – down a dirt track in a granite quarry in Congress, to the North West of Phoenix Arizona.

We finally have the information on the crane that went over in late April at a CNRL (Canadian Natural Resources Ltd) facility in Alberta. We understand that it is the Horizon oil Sands Project in Fort McMurray. The crane, a seven axle Liebherr LTM1400-7.1 owned by Mammoet, was apparently being driven into position to work on a flare stack- fully rigged with luffing jib, boom retracted and raised to full elevation.

A 22 ton capacity boom truck tipped over on Friday in Homer Alaska while working at the harbour. The boom truck, a Terex Stinger owned by Mr C. Construction, had been called in to remove a small crane from Petro Marine’s harbor fuel dock.

A Rough Terrain crane tipped over on an overpass over Interstate 57 in Chicago yesterday, seriously injuring a man that was hit in the chest by the falling crane. The crane operator was also badly shaken.

Yeakey was awarded $1.15 million in economic damages plus $300,000 in non-economic damages, including pain and suffering, and loss of enjoyment of life. In addition, the jury awarded his wife, Kristina Yeakey, $55,000 in non-economic damages. The verdict, which placed 70 percent of the blame on MKA, was the first time a jury has found negligence in the fatal collapse took the life of Matthew Ammon, as he sat in his apartment opposite. His family settled out of court for an undisclosed sum without finding fault.