Crane Accident

A crane has fallen into a drainage channel in Cambridgeshire, UK today killing the operator. The accident happened on a riverside track off the A142 at Mepal, halfway between Ely and Chatteris. The crane a small crawler crane with dredging bucket, slipped in when it slipped off of the timber track it was working from.

A launching crane has collapsed on the Jiaxing-Shaoxing Bridge construction site in China’s Zhejiang Province this morning. Reports say that two people have died and nine others injured in the accident. A statement from the site said that one man died on site while the other was declared dead at the hospital. Of the nine injured, at least one of them is in critical condition.

A 45 metre free standing tower crane went over in Studen in the Canton of Bern in Switzerland last week, injuring three. The crane, a fairly recent WolffKran owned by the Thun based contractor Frutiger, was mounted on a cross base which was sitting on built-up ground, retained by pilings.

A large mobile crane went over somewhere in Texas last week, from what, looking at the photographs, appears to be obvious reasons. From what we understand no one was injured in the incident. The photos were sent to us by a reader who has said little about the accident apart from observing that the rear outriggers do not appear to have been extended and there is no counterweight in place. The accident apparently occurred on November 18th although we have no firm confirmation of this date.

A loader crane left in a raised position while travelling on the road, brought a pedestrian bridge down onto other traffic, during the rush hour in Helsinki yesterday, resulting in one death and three other injuries.

A runaway crane smashed into a bus yesterday in Taiwan killing four people – three women and a man – and injuring a further eight. There were a total of 16 passengers on the bus. The accident involving a dated four axle truck crane, occurred in Guishan, Taoyuan County

We have been trying to ascertain the facts of a large crawler crane accident in the UK for a week now and still know little more than the basic facts. We received several reports that a 300 tonne Liebherr LR1300, owned by Weldex, had tipped over on a wind farm project in South Wales

The superstructure of boom/utility truck was ripped from its truck while installing a sign support in Augusta Georgia yesterday. The combined crane/work platform owned by Sign Care Carolina was placing the heavy steel base for a new billboard on a used car lot when the crane’s superstructure broke free from its mounting.

A boom truck tipped over in Wychmere harbour, Harwich, Cape Cod, Massachussets, yesterday after the ground gave way beneath one of its front outriggers. The crane, which is owned by locally based Baxter Crane was lifting a section of a wood framed building , when the outrigger punched through the ground and virtually flipped, with its boom nose ending up in the water.

A 70 ton truck crane tipped over and sliced through a house in North Carolina yesterday evening while helping remove a large tree from its back yard. The accident occurred in the historic district of Gastonia, to the west of Charlotte, while working for Denton Tree Services.