We know from experience: many job-site accidents happen because of either a lack of training or equipment failure. Be proactive in protecting your people and equipment. Sign up for training or schedule your next inspection with Cranes101. But first, read the June 2024 accidents.
Tree care fatality
This article was originally published with more pictures on June 8, 2024 on Vertikal.net.
A man working for a tree care company died on Wednesday morning after the vehicle mounted aerial lift/bucket truck he was working from overturned at a home in Silver Spring Maryland.
The man, 60, was pronounced dead at the scene. We have minimal specific detail regarding what happened here, the outriggers/stabilisers appear to have been set up properly, leaving the most likely cause as an overload.
There are those in the tree care industry that do use the lift to lift small tree limbs down, whether that is what happened we do not know, but hope that the OSHA investigation will clarify the cause.
Construction worker crushed to death by concrete slab in Lapu-Lapu
This article is reprinted from Cibu Daily News, published June 20, 2024.
CEBU CITY, Philippines — A miscalculation by a crane operator at a construction site in Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu became the cause of a tragedy when a concrete slab fell on a worker on Wednesday, June 19, 2024.
The victim, a construction worker, was crushed to death by a pre-cast concrete slab that weighed 600 kilograms.
The fatal incident reportedly happened at around 1:30 p.m. at a construction site inside a subdivision in Barangay Gun-ob, Lapu-Lapu City.
The deceased was identified as 39-year-old Joseph Alvaro-Salburo, married and a resident of Barangay Matab-ang in Toledo City.
Salburo was installing iron grill reinforcement at the construction site at the time of the incident when a slab of concrete suddenly fell on him and crushed his whole body.
Investigation showed that the concrete slab fell because of a mistake by the crane operator who was moving it.
Police Major Jaypee Dagami, chief of Gun-ob Police Station, narrated that witnesses said that the boom of the crane was fully extended despite the very short distance that the operator was moving the concrete slab to.
Because the operator miscalculated the equipment’s weight-load ratio, it began turning sideways and the concrete slab fell directly on the victim below.
Salburo, who was only wearing gloves as safety gear, died on the spot.
This was despite the efforts of personnel of the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP-R7) Lapu Lapu City District and City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (CDRRMO) who responded to the scene.
The crane operator, identified as Oliver Navarro, 39, from Barangay Masaba in Danao City was promptly arrested.
Dagami said that it was found that Navarro did not have the proper license to operate the equipment.
He said that the company, who hired Navarro as a subcontractor, may be held liable for the damage and required to pay compensation to the victim’s family.
Meanwhile, Navarro is now detained at the custodial facility of the Gun-ob Police Station pending the filing of a charge of reckless imprudence resulting to homicide against him.
Dagami said that they would be waiting for the victim’s family to visit the police station and relay their decision for the formal filing of the complaint.
Telehandler tip in Dublin
This vertikal.net article was originally published on June 18, 2024. There are more pictures and video at the original link.
An incident with a new 360 degree telehandler occurred last week on the site of Dublin’s new children’s hospital in Ireland. We understand that it occurred on Friday, June 14th but cannot categorically confirm this. We have received several photos from the scene, along with various videos and an explanation of what happened.
It seems that the operator of the new Manitou MRT rented from Athboy Plant Hire, was telescoping a loaded concrete bucket into the building, but could not quite reach the point where the concreting crew wanted it without the overload system being triggered. One of those supervising the job managed to persuade the operator to override the overload system to telescope the load just a little bit further in… a few inches turned into almost a metre, which caused it to loose stability, tipping forward. Thankfully the load was fairly close to the ground and landed before the machine tipped too far. But it was left perched on its front outriggers at an angle of around 50 degrees.
Thankfully no one was hurt in the incident and any damage appears to be light to non-existent – depending on how the recovery went. In one video the operator, still in his cab, can be heard shouting at the men on the ground staring at him, saying: “I knew this would happen I told you so, but you wouldn’t listen!” We have left out the expletives.
The main contractor for the project is BAM Ireland. It has provided the following update:
“BAM confirms there were no injuries nor damage caused to building or machine. Following our established protocols, the incident was well responded to, resolved and the area made safe within hours.”
If you see an accident report you’d like us to feature in the blog, like the ones shown here in the June 2024 Accidents Reports, let us know. Contact heather@cranes101.com or jeannette@cranes101.com with the information.