30.03.2007

Crane tip costs Durham £23,000

Durham County Council was fined a total of £20,000 plus more than £3,000 in costs for five health and safety offences arising from an incident on 1 August 2005 in which a 100-tonne All Terrain crane rented from GBK crane hire overturned into a culvert where men were working. See driver escapes as crane topples

The incident occurred in Front Street, Pelton Fell, County Durham, where the council was constructing an extension to an existing culvert and repairing the head wall of the culvert.

HSE Inspector Michael Brown said: "The council ordered a crane and operator to lower materials into the culvert where they were working, which was about 30 metres below road level. A 60-tonne crane was sent to the site but did not have sufficient reach, so a 100-tonne crane was sent.

"Its outriggers were placed on the earth at the top of the embankment where there was insufficient bearing capacity. The ground gave way and the crane toppled into the culvert. It missed the five men working in the culvert by no more than five metres.

"The site manager had been called away and the foreman who was left in charge did not have training or knowledge of lifting operations, and the operation was not properly planned or adequately supervised.

"In addition, a nearby public footpath from a housing estate to Front Street had not been closed off, though there is no evidence that members of the public were in the vicinity at the time".

The council was fined £7,000 each for failing to ensure the safety of its employees; and failing to ensure that people affected by their work but not employed by them were not exposed to risks; and £2,000 each for failing to ensure every lifting operation was carried out in a safe manner; failing to ensure every lifting operation was appropriately supervised; and failing to ensure every lifting operation was properly planned. It admitted all the offences.

Vertikal Comment

This appears to have been a straight crane hire, however one wonders that no mention was made of GBK by the HSE. It is hard to imagine that a county council could be considered able to plan and supervise its own lifts?

It would also seem logical that the crane driver would take some repsonsibility for not using the right size of cribbing or for setting up too close to the edge.

With all the effort that the HSE has put into pushing crane hirers into contract lifts to checking the credentials of a company requesting a straight crane hire, it is amazing that nothing has been said about this in its statement.