15.04.2026

A runaway crane

A five axle All Terrain crane parked up on a job site in Austria, ready to work began moving early on Monday morning and ended up rolling into a basement/foundation excavation, overturning rearwards.

We have not quite nailed down all of the finer details of what happened to our full satisfaction, especially given some of the exaggerated and melodramatic online reports we have seen/heard. We do know, however, that the crane was set up on site with its outriggers down and ready to work over the rear. We understand that no one had yet started work on the site and that the crane was unmanned at the time

The crane’s superstructure was slewed over the front with the retracted main boom almost fully elevated, with what looks like a full counterweight installed. So the crane was very back heavy with a light front end.

The crane, from the Felbermayr rental fleet, began to move, pulling its jacks free from their mats/cribbing and slowly moved down the slope, until the crane’s rear wheels dropped into the basement /foundation excavation, causing the crane to tip over rearwards, with the boom landing, partly on site cabins, with the boom nose landing on the new building itself.

Thankfully, no one was hurt in the incident, but the recovery did prove challenging, given the available space left on site. But a five axle Tadano managed to reverse into a space alongside, and with the aid of a large winch vehicle, the stricken crane was extracted.