November 12th, 2008

Lasi Romania, A small Self Erecting tower crane tipped and fell during the dismantling process. I managed to strike four cars but did not injure anyone. The jib and likely the mast, are a loss but possibly the base is salvageable.

With the crane coming down, I'm reminded of an accident in Hawaii where the crew dismantling the crane got a step ahead of themselves and removed the weights prior to getting the crane adequately folded down.  Without more information, I can't understand why a crane that was used to work on a job for months would fall over during the dismantling process. The ground certainly would be compacted. But if you remove the weights without the crane being adequately folded down, this may happen. Some of the small Potains have weights bolted to the frame to prevent this sort of thing. Mistakes always seem to have a way of happening anyways.

Link  
macarale turn accident