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01.09.2021

Another crane tree incident

Two men were injured yesterday after the truck crane they were using overturned onto a house in Issaquah, Washington, south west of Seattle. The two, one of whom was the crane operator, were part of a team removing a tree from the back yard of the house. Thankfully the building was unoccupied at the time and no one else was involved in the incident.
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The crane was working over the rear with cribbing to help level up on the sloping site


The crane, a new National Crane NTC 55L with 46 metres of main boom, belongs to Eastside Tree Works and was lifting over of the rear to remove a section of a large tree in the steeply sloping back yard of the home when it overturned. It looks as though the cribbing under one of the outriggers may have shifted, but that could easily have happened as the crane tipped. More likely the crane took too big or heavy a tree section and over it went. The crane cab struck the roof of the building but remained intact.
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The crane appears to have been lifting a large tree section


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The cribbing on one side was disrupted, in all likelihood this happened as the went over or came to a stop

Photos courtesy of Eastside Fire & Rescue
The video footage below is raw drone footage from the site:

Comments

lever monkey
At the end of the day it comes down to one thing. Money. They are playing things too close to the limits and get caught out. Do proper lift plans and calculations then add 25% for a saftey factor. Surely a job done right and safely will attract more customers than a job done cheaper and a boom through your roof. Golden rule. Pay peanuts get monkeys. Cheap work is not always good. Good work ain’t always cheap

Sep 7, 2021

Dusty
Sherm
The cribbing was for leveling and weight distribution side to side, nothing to do with the truck tipping backwards. That was due to not enough counterweight in the front of the truck to exceed the weight that they were lifting in the back of the yard with the boom at full extension.

Sep 5, 2021

Sherm
I've been in tee service since 1991. In 2009 I hired a crane truck for two huge lifts at two sites in one afternoon. I knew very little about the calculations, limitations and risks of this task. I know a lot more now thanks to Vertikal and TCIA. This accident boils down to one issue...too much load. The cribbing they did looks like they ran out of timbers and cut short what was really needed to secure the truck. maybe they will learn from this one.

Sep 5, 2021

Eric_L
What are you talking about, these cowboys are keeping a whole industry of crane repairers, roofers and carpenters in business !

Sep 2, 2021

Can't Spell Mokanic
What's up with these tree guys?? We seldom see two weeks go by without one of these guys dumping another boom through a house. Do they all live in a vacuum where they don't talk to the world outside? C'mon tree cutters, get your act together.

Sep 1, 2021