June 25th, 2010

Cessna, Italy. The jib of a tower crane came down shortly after it had been erected. The boom came down with a father and son team working at a height of 7 or 8 meters. The translation isn't clear about where the two were working. Were they in a suspended platform? arial lift, actually on the jib? Clearly the crane is taller than 7-8 meters, but I don't see any other place where they could have fallen from 7 or 8 meters. The story notes that they are basically the crane erectors and they were finishing up verifying that the crane was working well and certifying it. The father ended up on a Conex roof and the son was badly wounded on the ground. The son was transported to the hospital where he was treated but the father died on the job site. Link

The cause of the accident is listed as a "rupture or leakage" of a pin. I can only assume from the pictures that we are talking about a jib pendant pin and it would appear that it's at the Tower Top connection. Certainly looking for bent keepers on pins is one of the primary things that I get concerned about. They do get missed. People get into a hurry or distracted and simply forget to double check. In this case, a story came out two days later that another party was being investigated for Manslaughter in the matter. That could be due to many different laws, abdication of responsibilities like providing training, or a more serious charge.

It may seem interesting that a father/son team is working on cranes and gets injured together. But it's happened two other times that I know of. Here and Here. In all three cases it was the father that died.