05.09.2019
Another tree, another crane
A four axle All Terrain crane overturned while removing a tree from the garden of a home in Tallahassee, Florida yesterday.
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The crane appears to be short rigged
Thankfully no one was hurt in the incident, which involved a 90 tonne Tadano owned and operated by local company Forgotten Coast Crane Service. While the local police claimed it was a “freak accident” and a witness stated that the crane malfunctioned, it seems pretty clear that the cause was more related to the crane set up and ground conditions.
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it is hard to understand exactly what went wrong
At first glance it looks as though the crane was short rigged on the side of the lift however, it is possible that the outrigger beams retracted under the cranes weight when it tipped? The fact that the operator coned off the entire road indicates that there was sufficient room to accommodate the full width of the outrigger base. But all does not look quite right, what is clear, of course, is the crane was overloaded for its configuration.
So another tree - with the help of gravity – has resulted in anther crane overturn.
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The boom caused serious damage to the house- thankfully the owners were not in residence at the time
Sherm
I got sidetracked, forgive my duplication if it occurred. If the crane set was secured with outriggers out full length tightly pressed to Earth then I suspect the trunk was not cut cleanly away from the stump. Both the arborist and the crane operator should be held accountable to verify the lift can be carried out.
I learned in 1972 from a class about accident recognition and prevention done by Liberty Mutual Insurance accidents don’t ‘just happen’...they are caused to happen.
Sherm
We need an edit and reply feature in this new web site.
I study crane accidents from the macrocosmic view down to microscopic flaws to learn all I can, for my aerial W-A-H is so very limited to tree work and two trailer lifts. I hired a local boom crane truck ten years ago to remove two massive oak trees at two sites in one day. I didn’t know then that I should have cut shorter trunk pieces to make more lifts safely to avoid situations like this one. The many things I’ve learned since then prove the saying “hindsight is easier to get than foresight”.
Last Friday I got an estimate request to remove a large maple trunk grown above a cottage from a co-dominant triple-trunk boundary tree behind the cottage on neighbors’ (two) properties. To complicate matters and increase time and equipment cost the tree has grown through chain link, barbed wire and welded wire fence which calls for a signed work agreement, a carbide saw chain and probably disposal or reservation of the old saw bar with the carbide chain for the future. It will be an expensive job. The book Tree Law Cases by Lew Block will truly fit my estimate and fits this Tadano crane accident...think before you act.
Sherm
I study crane accidents from the microcosmic picture down to microscopic flaws to learn, for my aerial W-A-H is so very limited to tree work and two trailer lifts. I hired a local boom crane truck ten years ago to remove two massive oak trees at two sites in one day. I didn’t know then that I should have cut shorter trunk pieces to make more lifts safely to avoid situations like this one. The many things I’ve learned since then prove the saying “hindsight is easier to get than foresight”. Last Friday I got an estimate request to remove a large maple trunk grown above a cottage from a co-dominant triple-trunk boundary tree behind the cottage on neighboring property. To complicate the job the tree has grown through chain link, barbed wire and welded wire fence which calls for a carbide saw chain and probably disposal or reservation of the old saw bar with the carbide chain for the future. It will be an expensive job. The book Tree Law Cases by Lew Block will truly fit my estimate and fits this Capra en accident...think before you act.
Sherm
I’m holding comment for the follow-up investigation. I lived in the region 14 years long enough to learn about Florida Caverns State Park at Marianna to the west and that many aquifers exist in the panhandle. Photos indicate too much weight to lift and the outriggers may have punched through an underground void.
Pemby
in the second picture, looking at the rear outrigger reveals that the ram for the right rear was broken clear off the frame, so likely tipped from overload and as it came down, the outriggers (which don't appear to even have a pinning mechanism as typical to the 90t tadano) shot in, with the rear outrigger even breaking the ram free from the outrigger's box frame.