Friday, July 16, 2010

July 15th, 2010


Laussane Switzerland, A Self-Erecting Tower Crane collapsed today. No one was reported as injured. One driver was startled as his car was just barely struck on the mirror. He was very close to being involved in the accident. No operator was noted as being injured.

Looking at the pictures, I'm a little surprised at what I see. I see a set of pins missing on the rear of the crane at the tower. Is it possible that the crane was erected without these pins? When I zoom in on the picture I don't see any damage to the dowel coming out of the bottom tower or the pocket on the upper tower. Could it be that they were dismantling and they moved the tower up only to find that the pins weren't in at all? Could it be that they were erecting for this site a second time and the pins were forgotten (reported as a 9 AM accident)? or possibly when they slackened the luffing rope to let down the boom to touch the tip to the ground it got enough movement that it just fell forward and has been like this since the crane was erected? This last scenario is the one that speaks to me since the job is enclosed.

This was a very lucky incident that the crane appears to have survived an entire job missing a set of tower pins and no one was killed. Don't get in a hurry and it never hurts to have someone double check your work. We all have made mistakes, but this one is easily avoidable.

The story online has many more pictures.
 

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