24.06.2010

Fatal crane accident Chennai

A man died and another was seriously injured when a crane dropped its load on the Air India building yesterday.

The crane, believed to be one of the large tower cranes working on the expansion of the domestic terminal, was lifting a 26 tonnes- 49 metre long truss when the crane jib broke away and came down with the truss onto Air India's operations building.
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The Air India Operations building with truss, the cranes jib is just visible behind

A construction worker in his late 30’s or early 40’s was pinned under the truss, it took rescue crews over an hour to free him and he died while en route to the hospital.

The main contractor, Consolidated Construction Consortium said that the area where the crane was working had been cordoned off. It also said that the crane had been inspected a week ago. The company has started an investigation into what caused the jib to collapse.

Consolidated Construction’s managing director S. Sivaramakrishnan said: “Hereafter, we will doubly ensure that safety precautions are taken,”