Our experience shows that the major causes of job-site accidents are a lack of training and equipment failure. Don’t let that happen to you and your employees. Sign up for training or schedule your next inspection. But first, read on for the August 2022 accidents.
Crane Operator Suffers Traumatic Injuries In Accident
We are reprinting this article from KXL.com originally published on August 12, 2022 . If you follow the link, there is video of the incident as well.
PORTLAND, Ore. — A crane operator suffered traumatic injuries in an accident on the OHSU campus on Friday morning.
A drill machine on a 100,000lb construction crane tipped over, pinning the worker inside the cab.
“We understand the operator of the rug, an employee of Pacific Foundation, sustained injuries and is under the care of OHSU,” said Tim Johnson with Skanska Construction who’s in charge of the project.
He says his company and others will conduct an investigation into the incident.
Members of the crew freed the man by placing a jack under the cab, allowing them to quickly lift it off the victim. Portland Fire & Rescue’s Technical Rescue Team supported the cab with cribbing to keep it from shifting to protect the victim from further injury. The glass of the cab was shattered to rescue the victim and transport them to the hospital.
Wrong crane, poor planning
This article is reprinted from Vertikal.net originally published August 8, 2022. If you follow the link, you can watch the video on the incident.
A video of a crane overturn in India on Wednesday, has gone viral. The incident occurred in the town of Talcher in the state of Odisha on the north east coast of the Bay of Bengal.
Two articulated tractor cranes were carrying out a tandem lift to recover a truck that had crashed through the road barrier into a canal several metres below the road.
It looks as though the hoist cable or slings of the crane attached to the front of the truck broke when the truck was just about clear of the water, allowing the load to fall suddenly. The hoist cable and rigging of the other crane held tight to the truck, the extra weight and dynamic loading were more than enough to tip the crane into the water.
Thankfully the operator was able to exit the cab and swim safely to safety. Given the state of the rigging and the cranes, the odds that the lift would have gone well were minimal, thankfully no one lost their life in this poorly planned lift.
Work resumes at Steel District following crane accident
This article is reprinted from Sioux Falls Business published on August 18, 2022 and written by Jodi Schwan. The original article has additional pictures, so click through to view those.
By the beginning of next week, the hope is it will be back to building as usual at The Steel District after a crane tipped over Tuesday morning.
“We know what happened with the equipment, and it was not anything to do with our building,” said Jake Quasney, chief operating officer of developer and general contractor Lloyd Cos. “We had a failure when it came to that piece of equipment.”
No one was hurt.
The crane, which was operated by a subcontractor, hit the corner of the nine-story mixed-use building that will be mostly office space with restaurants on the main level. The accident happened as the crane was lifting a precast column.
“If it was going to hit a part of the building, it hit the best possible part because it’s not a critical structural component of the building,” Quasney said.
Damage to the building appears to be “very minimal,” he said. “It initially appears that the column that absorbed the impact was not compromised, but we will do further analysis when the crane is removed.”
That will be soon. Engineers came on-site the day of the incident to do a structural analysis.
“OSHA came in even though it wasn’t a workplace accident but out of an abundance of caution,” Quasney said. “So everyone has evaluated the building structurally, and once the crane is out, we’ll do another evaluation before we do any more work on that portion of the building.”
There is equipment on-site to remove the crane, a process expected to be done by Saturday, and a new crane is expected to be there by Monday.
“We will be back to setting precast,” Quasney said. “The big thing is how important it is that everybody went home safe, and even more important, I was really proud of the way our team responded to it. Within 10 minutes of it going down, we had EMS on-site, myself, our VP of construction, our superintendent, our safety team was en route — it mobilized quickly — and we were able to determine we didn’t have injuries. We got the site secured very quickly, and I thought they did a fantastic job.”
The message to the team is that commitment to safety is critical and needs to continue, he added.
“Now, it’s about working with Gage Brothers and Gil Haugan Construction to solidify the team approach of getting through this and moving past the accident component to traction and getting to a point where we’re back to normal days, but doing so in a safe fashion. We don’t want to be looking back and making mistakes because we’re trying to make up ground.”
The development is on target to meet its move-in dates, though, Quasney said.
The parking ramp is done, footings are going in for the building that will wrap around it with retail, apartments and condominiums, and it’s expected to start going vertical in October. The office tower is on track to begin moving in tenants in less than a year. And footings are starting on the Canopy by Hilton hotel, which will go vertical shortly after the other building is wrapped around the ramp.
“We just continue to work to get it done despite some of the challenges that exist out there,” Quasney said.
If you see an accident report you’d like us to feature in the blog, like the ones shown here in the August 2022 Accidents Reports, let us know. Contact heather@cranes101.com with the information.