Crane Accident

A crane operator accidentally engaged the main hoist of his crawler crane in Naples Maine, yesterday pulling the lattice boom over the back of the crane. No one was injured in the incident and there appears to be little damage to anything but the crane, the boom of which is clearly a ‘write-off’.

Seven men working on the Jirau hydroelectric power plant near Porto Velho in Brazil had a lucky escape on Monday after a crane dropped a 30 tonne load onto the scaffold they were standing on.

A large construction crane flipped over in a Stafford County business center on Wednesday and wrapped around a building. The accident happened in the Quantico Corporate Park around 11 a.m.

A tragic end for a Houston man killed in a construction accident in Richmond Tuesday afternoon. A company was building a “water detention” area near Mission Bend, according to a Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman.

A crawler crane operator was slightly injured when his crane tipped over in Montreal yesterday. The incident occurred on on the CHUM superhospital construction St-Denis Street between Viger and De la Gauchetiere.

The crane driver involved in the ‘run-away’ crane that killed a farmer has been acquitted by a jury of any blame. Allan Woodrow was acquitted in under an hour at Bradford Crown Court of causing the death of Colin Chew by dangerous driving on March 26, 2009, and an alternative charge of causing his death by careless or inconsiderate driving.

We have been alerted to a tragic crane accident on a wind farm in South America, almost certainly in Brazil. The accident, which we have been told occurred last wednesday, involves a 1,200 tonne Liebherr LTM11200-9.1. which was lifting a full blade and rotor assembly into place when – we are told – a strong gust took the load out to the side, creating a massive side load on the crane’s boom.

New York City’s department of buildings has released a new report by consulting engineers Ove Arup on the tower crane collapse last March that killed seven people. The new report lays the blame squarely on improper use of slings, and also addresses the question of whether the friction base used at the foot of the crane may have contributed to the accident.

A 60 tonne mobile crane overturned while lifting a large sign at a station in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Saturday.

While the incident closed the station for several hours while the crane was recovered and damage repaired, no one was injured.

A lattice crane boom came down across two or three parked cars in Fayetteville, North Carolina yesterday. The 110 ton crawler crane, owned by Buckner Heavylift Cranes of Graham, North Carolina, was rented to LeChase Construction Services and was working on the town’s multi storey car park, lifting steel beams, when the accident occurred.