01.07.2012
Fatal crane overturn in Houston
A crane operator died when his lattice boomed truck crane overturned on Thursday last week in Conroe, a suburb of Houston, Texas.
The crane was working on the site of a burnt out store, and was carrying out concrete wall panel tilt-up lifts when it went over. The operators cab was crushed trapping and killing operator Louis Ruiz, 56.
Please register to see all images
The overturned crane
Lifting equipment was quickly brought in to raise the crane and allow access to the cab, but it appeared that Ruiz had died almost immediately. The crane a four axle Link Belt 100 ton HC218A, was working for Houston based Axiom Construction Company.
Please register to see all images
A side shot shows the partial outrigger extension
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration will be investigating the incident. Sadly however the cause of the overturn looks to be clear, the outriggers on the side of the chassis facing the lift are only slightly extended, while those to the rear are fully extended.
It looks as though the crane pulled up and set up too close to the panel, limiting the outrigger extension and thus providing inadequate stability for the lift. An overhead photo that we received also suggests that a supplementary counterweight came free at some point.
Please register to see all images
An overhead shot seems to show a piece of jettisoned counterweight
The crane – appears to have been well looked after.
strretch67
It is also likely that when the crane started to tip the outriggers were pushed back into the beams increasing the speed with which the crane overturned. The Coutnerweight is the front bumper counterweight which fell off whne the crane overturned.
The advantage of a friction machine is the ability to quickly get rid of the load by letting off the brake. Unfortunately we may never know what happened as sadly the operator did not make it.