December 7, 2009

WARSAW, Poland

Polish officials say a worker died and a second was injured in a crane accident at the construction site of a major stadium going up in Warsaw for the 2012 European football championship.

Pawel Fratczak, the national spokesman for firefighters in Poland, says the accident occurred when a lift on the crane crashed to the ground from a height of about 15 metres (50 feet).

He said one man was killed immediately and the second was unconscious and taken to a hospital.

EXTENSIVE CLEANUP UNDER WAY

Workers ready to pull the truck from a river.

BRIMFIELD, MA— A mother thought she and her son were going to die when a tractor-trailer hauling a crane rear-ended a stopped school bus just moments before the boy was going to step on.

Tammy D. Plue, who lives at 180 Palmer Road, was approaching the school bus with her 6-year-old son Connor around 7:45 a.m. today on Route 20 westbound, when the accident occurred.

“We’re pretty shaken up right now. Connor keeps talking about it. And it was really unbelievable,” Mrs. Plue said from her home tonight. “It looked like the wreckage was coming towards us at one point. It happened so fast. I remember, thinking that we’re dead.”

James Whittaker, 63, of Palmer, the bus driver, was taken to a nearby hospital as a precaution and released. Picking up Connor, a Brimfield Elementary School first-grader, was the second stop on the route for Mr. Whittaker, who picked up a kindergartener just minutes before. The young girl, who was sitting at the front of the bus at the time of the accident, was not injured and released to her father.

“The bus was stopped. The stopped sign was out and the lights were blinking,” Mrs. Plue recalled. “I was probably four feet from the street and my son was probably two feet from this. Thank God, he turned around and started running with me up the hill.”

According to state police, the impact of the crash sent the bus across the median along Route 20 about 100 yards, while the tractor-trailer crashed through a guardrail and, with the crane, slid down an embankment, next to a wetlands.

Agnelo Bairos, 46, of North Dighton, the tractor-trailer driver, was uninjured and outside of the mangled cab when rescue crews arrived. Because of the weight and terrain, Craig A. Moran, president of Sturbridge Service Center used two cranes for the “heavy-duty recovery” operation that continued tonight.

Catherine Skiba, regional spokesperson for the state Department of Environmental Protection, said the trailer released an estimated 150 gallons of diesel and 60 gallons of hydraulic oil and pads and booms were placed around the trailer and in the wetlands.

Carolyn Daly, spokesperson for the Atlantic Express Transportation (the district’s school bus provider) stressed that drivers need to be fully aware of school buses on the road.

“We had a kindergartener on the bus and a first-grader was about to get on the bus,” Ms. Daly said. “We continue to urge the public to use extreme caution around school buses at all times, especially when the flashing lights are on because we got precious cargo.”

In addition to the DEP and state police, the state Highway Department, the Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Section of the state police and Brimfield police, fire and EMS, responded to the scene. The accident is still under investigation and no citations have been issued.

November 17, 2009

HOUMA – On November 17, 2009, Tuesday afternoon at 1:10 p.m. the Terrebonne Parish Sheriff’s Office received a 911 call in reference to an industrial accident that occurred at Elevated Boats Inc. 302 Dean Court Houma.

The Terrebonne Parish Sheriff’s Office, Terrebonne Parish (O.E.P), Houma Police Department, Houma Fire Department, Grand Caillou Fire Department and Acadian Ambulance Service responded to this accident.

Detectives received information that the crane operator and one of the employees who was inside of the fabrication shop, when the accident occurred, were the only serious injuries reported during this industrial accident.

The crane operator was operating a 400 ton fixed land crane with a 200 ft. boom. The operator was in the process of picking up a 30 ton certified weight from an 18-wheeler flat bed truck. Then, as the weight was being placed on the ground next to the fabrication shop the boom of the crane crashed down into the building trapping one person inside of the building, the fire department and Acadian Ambulance Service removed him.

Acadian Ambulance transported one of the victims to the Leonard Chabert Medical Center and the other to Terrebonne General Medical Center

At this time there are two employees who are reported to have serious injuries. Heath Perkins age 30 and Larry Naquin, age 60, who are both residents of Terrebonne Parish.

At 2:44 p.m. Heath Perkins was pronounced deceased at the Leonard Chabert Medical Center.

Nov 20th 2009

You know when you return from, like, Pizza Hut and a crane has split your house in two?

No? Michelle and Kevin McCarthy do. They returned to their house in Santa Rosa, California to see this.

The 90ft lifting machine had been trying to move a 150-year-old oak tree, but it was too heavy and the crane toppled backwards. Kevin said: "I think we’re just in shock right now."

One neighbour who saw the crane crash into the house said it seemed to happen in "slow motion". The hoist’s owner insisted the smash in Santa Rosa, California, was a freak accident. Check out a big image after the jump.

[tags accident, worker, media)

Thu Nov 19, 2009, 02:01 PM CST

Man critical after industrial accident at Pennant Hills

19 Nov 09 @ 01:18pm

A man is in a critical but stable condition following a major accident on a construction site in Pennant Hills.

The accident accourred just after 9am on Wednesday.

The man sustained fractures to his right leg and ankle, lacerations to the head and serious internal injuries.

It is believed that the man was helping a crane driver on the site when the extendable flyer arm of the crane boom malfunctioned and struck him.

The injured man was rushed to Westmead Hospital where he underwent surgery before he was placed in a serious but stable condition.

The crane operator was also injured but only suffered bruising and swelling.

Details of the accident are still unclear but are being investigated by Police and WorkCover.

Nov 10, 2009

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — One worker was killed and another injured Tuesday when a crane tipped over at the construction site of a Kansas City, Mo., performing arts center, police said.

The two men were in the bucket of the 100-foot-tall JLG Lift when it fell away from the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts and landed across a platform of steel beams at about 1:40 p.m., officials said.

One of the men was pronounced dead at a hospital, said police spokesman Darin Snapp. The other was listed in serious but stable condition and was able to talk. Snapp said both men were in their 30s, but their identities were not immediately released.

Kansas City Missouri police officers look at a portable boom lift that fell at the construction site of the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2009, in Kansas City, Mo. One worker was killed and another injured Tuesday when a crane tipped over at the construction site, police said.

The men were installing steel panels on the building for Detroit-based subcontractor Midwest Steel, said Kyle McQuiston, spokesman for Kansas City-based general contractor JE Dunn Construction Group.

Construction on the 13-acre site began in 2006 and is scheduled to be finished in 2011. The $400 million center will be the home of the Kansas City Symphony, the Lyric Opera of Kansas City and the Kansas City Ballet.

McQuiston said the construction site had no previous fatalities or injuries.

Workers were sent home for the day while investigators examined the site, said JE Dunn president Dan Euston.

"We have an onsite safety team down there and are working with investigators, both local and any federal agencies, to determine what caused this accident," Euston said. "We’re very deeply saddened by this event. Our heartfelt thoughts and prayers are with the families."

Crane accidents kill up to 82 construction workers each year in the United States, according to the U.S. Occupational Health and Safety Administration. A crane at the construction site of a new federal courthouse in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, also collapsed Tuesday, but police say no one was hurt.

A construction worker died last month after falling from a lift that toppled over and struck a downtown Philadelphia apartment building.

And two New York City crane collapses in 2 1/2 months during the spring of 2008 left nine people dead. Investigators have blamed faulty rigging of an 11,000-pound crane part in the first of those accidents, which killed seven people on March 15, 2008.

Phoenix, AZ—Two construction workers sustained third degree burns after a crane swung into live powerlines and shocked them. The construction accident happened on Wednesday night, September 23, 2009 at a construction site near 25th Avenue and Broadway Road, as reported by ABC15.

Phoenix fire officials stated a crane operator was talking to another worker through a headset, who was working in a trench 40-feet below, when the two men were shocked. The crane operator apparently swung the crane into a set of powerlines, which then shocked the two men through the headsets. Rescue teams reportedly had to rescue one of the injured workers out of the 40-foot trench. Both of the construction workers sustained third degree burns to their ears, head, chest, and legs from the electric shock. Both of the victims were rushed by area emergency medical services (EMS) crews to a Valley hospital for treatment of their burns. The crane operator is reportedly in critical condition. It is currently unknown who employs the two injured construction workers. Police officials are also currently withholding the identities of the victims. Officials with the Federal Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) http://www.osha.gov/ are expected to conduct a full investigation into the construction accident.

SIX workers at a Taiwan construction company have been sentenced to jail for negligence leading to a crane crash that killed three Chinese mainland tourists in Taipei earlier this year.

The six, an engineer, a team leader, a crane operator and three other workers from the crane operations team, were sentenced to between eight and 12 months in jail yesterday, all with a reprieve of two years, China News Service reported, citing Taiwan media.

The tragedy occurred on April 24 in Taipei when a construction crane fell on a bus carrying 25 tourists from Dongguan City of south China’s Guangdong Province and crushed the rear of the bus, killing three and injuring another two.

Prosecutors said the crane, which had a load capacity of 3.2 tons, was used to lift and move a 5-ton boom. Strong wind was also a factor behind the accident and it contributed to cause the crane tower to fall, the court said.

The court said it delivered reprieves to the workers because they showed regret and the company had reached consensus with the victims’ families.
Read more: http://www.shanghaidaily.com/sp/article/2009/200911/20091116/article_419659.htm#ixzz0XK7jq6TL

One of the country’s largest plant hire companies have been fined £100,000 after admitting flouting health and safety rules which left a crane driver with crippling injuries. At NAHETS Safety is our primary concern.

John Young suffered severe spinal injuries after the cab of the crane fell through the air and crashed onto the roof of the Croydon Park Hotel on June 2, 2007.

He has been left unable to return to work more than two years after the tragedy.

Passers-by reported watching the crane’s arm topple backwards 200 feet in the air and break free from its base before crashing onto the roof of the neighbouring hotel.

Firefighters who helped rescue the injured driver from the wreckage described it as “one of the biggest disasters in Croydon since the Second World War.”

The crane was building the Altitude 25 apartment block for Howard Holdings when the accident happened at around 2.20pm.

Three other workers were left stranded on the top of the crane’s base for five hours as firefighters from Croydon fire station launched a massive rescue operation.

Select Plant Hire Company Ltd, based in Dartford, Kent, admitted breaching regulation 9(2) (b) and 8(1) of the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998; regulation 9(2) of the Provision and use of work Equipment Regulations 1998 and; section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.

As well as the fine, the company was ordered £15 victim surcharge and the costs were £33,196.

Judge Anthony Morris said: “The defendant company created a very significant risk of an accident occurring. In addition when part of a crane falls to the ground, the possibility of death or serious injury is extremely high.”