03.12.2012
Another road overturn
We finally have details of the crane that overturned in the UK last week, a 120 tonne five axle All Terrain on a road in Antrobus, south of Warrington.
The crane, a four axle Terex AC120 belonging to Select Plant, looks as though it struck the soft verge of the road as it took a bend and rolled into the hedge. The incident happened last Wednesday but details and this photo was only received today.
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The overturned crane last week
We understand that no one was hurt in the incident which looks as though it is different from the usual soft verge collapses on small secondary roads the risk of which has been compounded by heavy rain and waterlogged ground conditions. There have been a number of those incidents in the UK, Germany and the USA this year, possibly compounded by the number of large cranes travelling down small country roads to wind farms?
Vertikal Comment
The main point of us publishing incidents such as this and the more tragic lifting incidents is to a) Produce a simple factual report that will hopefully stop the word of mouth distortion that always occurs when there is a shortage of clear facts and…b) To provide a reminder and alert to equipment owners and operators of what can happen.
Our reports are now used around the world by a wide range of companies and institutions as part of training programmes and for regular Monday morning ‘toolbox talks’.
Some companies are very good at passing this information on, knowing that their misfortune might at least help others avoid a similar incident. Our reporting though is only as good as good as the input we receive and we rely very much on our readers for this input.
*article corrected - crane model
The story goes that the crane got out of a wagons way on a bend? If that was true then the crane hit the grass and went on its side.
Demag AC120 no AC100
Also if the wagon did see the crane coming around the bend i would have thought the crane would have the better odds being that the fly on the crane would have hit the wagon head on being a left hand drive crane? I am sure that the wagon would have been on its side and not the crane if this was the case??
Stumpy
this, unfortunately looks like operator error. As careful road users, crane ops will always try and pull over to let traffic through, but sometimes with tragic consequences! It would be interesting to see the movement order for this one. Thanks to Vertikal for publishing these, as they are a great teaching tool. Maybe the crane company managers etc should heed these warnings!