23.05.2013

Truck driver- not crane driver

A tree being loaded by a loader crane in a new town in the southern province of Binh Duong, struck a power line that forms a critical part of Vietnam’s national grid, causing a massive power outage across the southern region of Vietnam yesterday.
Please register to see all images

We are not 100% sure that this is the actual tree - we were told that it is - we expected to see it burnt and are susrprised at how many parts of line there are for a simple loader crane

The truck driver Ngo Tan Thao said that he was loading the 10 metre tree at a nursery when it touched the cable. “A big explosion followed”, he said. “I jumped down from the truck and received a mild electric shock, the trucks front tyres were also blown out.”

The outage affected the southern half of Ho Chi Minh City and the Mekong Delta provinces of Soc Trang, Hau Giang, Ben Tre. Phnom Penh neighbouring Cambodia was also affected. Authorities have impounded the truck with its loader crane for further investigation.

News web sites across the world reported that a careless crane driver had shut down a third of Vietnams power. While not completely wrong - Ngo Tan Thao is first and foremost a truck driver, who happens to have a crane on board for loading and unloading the trees he delivers.

Not quite the same as a crane operator, but perhaps we are being pedantic?