17.10.2012
Crane overturns in Darwin
An articulated pick & carry crane overturned earlier today at a hospital site in Darwin, Australia.
The crane, a Franna owned by local rental company A.M. Cranes & Rigging, was lifting a large reel of cable which it appears to have been moving with at the time and then as it tried to mount a small kerb the load swung and caused it to overturn sideways.
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The crane overturned sideways as it negoatiated a slope
Thankfully the operator, a 40 year old female, and the rigger a 21 year old man, were unhurt in the incident at the at Royal Darwin Hospital.
WorkSafe is investigating the incident.
Local reports claim that this is the second incident in the area in as many weeks, with an 80 tonne crane involved in what sounds like a traffic accident which left a man with severe leg injuries.
Emil
I suggest that this could be matter not only of the driver, but also of this particular kind of crane. An articulated crane could be dangerous with big steering angle. Expecially approaching a step or a kerb.
There seems to be an increasing no of incidents involving small cranes in Australia.
What I suspect is happening, is that as crane co's are growing and increasing their fleet size, the more experienced operators are being used to drive the new, larger cranes, leaving trainee's on the smaller cranes such as Franna's, city-cranes and such like.This happened in the UK - many operators spent years driving a 25 or 50t until the fleet size started to grow. Now, an operator showing any promise could find himself driving a 50t after a few weeks.
New operators need at LEAST 6 months working as a banksperson or rigger on a large crane, then 6 months operating a crane under supervision of an experienced operator before they should even be considered to operate a crane on their own.
There is NO training that can beat good, practical experience on the ground under supervision of someone competent and proven.
I would welcome other readers thoughts on this !