24.02.2012

Fatal crane incident

A crane operator died yesterday in Whitby, Canada, after the boom of his crane came down on him, while he was derigging it.

David Gallagher, 30, worked with Galcon Marine, the owner the crane. The family company has a number of lattice crawler cranes, mostly Koehring and Link Belt units, fitted with draglines or clamshells with capacities of up to 50 tons.

We understand that the crane, a Link Belt 98, was working for Clipper Construction, which trades as Coreydale Contracting, on a soil retaining barrier for a new apartment block being built near the water.

A police constable on the site said that Gallagher had climbed out of the crane to look at the boom, when it dropped and landed on top of him, pinning him to the ground. He was pronounced dead at the scene. A spokesman for the ministry of labour confirmed that the boom was being stripped out at the time, when it unintentialy came down on him.
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One of Galcon Marine's Link Belt cranes