19.08.2006

Crawler crane up the creek

An 80 ton Lima crawler crane belonging to Ross Brothers of Salem, toppled into Bear creek in Oregon on Thursday, when a beam and temporary wooden trestle underneath it, buckled and collapsed.

Ross Brothers is a specialist bridge contractor working in the North West USA, it has a fleet of Lima cranes along with a few Manitowoc’s. Most are early 1970’s vintage.
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Clay Ross, of Ross Brothers, and the fallen crane in Bear Creek

Clay Ross the project manager on the job said "We were going to remove the work trestle to get ready to pour our cap beams...The operator is fine he fractured his collar bone and the crane will likely be pulled out by this weekend."

Ross Brothers is working on the Jackson County project to widen the bridge to four lanes, the crane tipped over at about 7:30 in the morning the fire service was not called until an hour or so later when a passerby spotted it.

The crane operator jumped clear of the cab just before the accident