11.10.2011

Crane collapse kills five in China

Five people have died and one was injured last night when a crane collapsed in northwest China's Gansu Province. Few details of the incident are available but according to reports the accident occurred late last night at a wind power equipment company in Jiuquan.

The boom of the crane is said to have 'broken' during a lifting operation, instantly crushing five workers to death. The injured person was in serious condition and taken to a nearby hospital, but his injuries were not thought to be life-threatening.

An investigation into the cause of the accident is underway. We will update this when we have more informaiton.

UPDATE

We now have more details on the tragic crane collapse that occurred in China on Tuesday that took five lives. We can now confirm that it was a 1,000 tonne crawler crane.

The crane a Zoomlion QUY 1000 crawler crane owned by Ningxia Tianxin Construction and development was lifting a 5MW wind turbine nacelle at the production facility of Sinovel where it was made.
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The crane the following day alongside the 5MW power unit/nacelle

The load was recorded as 318 tonnes which was within the cranes capacity. As the crane took the load out to a greater radius the boom suddenly gave way at its base and collapsed. The sudden unloading of the superstructure caused the derrick mast to go over the rear which together with the heavy counterweight ripped the superstructure from the slew bearing.
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A closer look shows here the boom broke and how the superstructure parted company with the slew ring

There were reports of a ceremony being held at the site to watch the turbine being erected, but Sinovel has denied this. However five people were crushed by the falling load and boom. They included Yu Yongdong the Chinese Communist party secretary for the Jiuquan industrial park, his wife Liang Feiyan - deputy director of Jiuquan municipal archives bureau and Jia Ping, director of the Jiuquan Industrial Park management committee. Two Sinovel workers were also killed.

A full investigation is on-going, Zoomlion has sent a team to join the investigation and the local mayor has demanded that new rules be implemented in order to prevent a reoccurrence.