03.06.2007

Another London tower crane accident

A tower crane collapsed yesterday on a hotel in Croydon, London, The cranes operator was seriously injured and three men were trapped in the tower.
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The crane thankfully came to rest on the building

The top of the tower crane, a relatively new Terex Comedil belonging to Select, collapsed on to the Croydon Park Hotel on Addiscombe Grove, south London.

The operator who is said to be seriously injured was trapped in his cab which was hanging onto the side of the building. He was eventually rescued by being winched from the cab by an adjacent tower crane.
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Another view of the fallen crane

Few details are available at this time, but given that three crane men had to be rescued from the tower it seems likely that the crane was being extended using a climbing frame.

Local reports say that the crane was lifting “a large steel girder” at the time, this is likely to have been an additional tower section.

More than 45 fire fighters were at the scene while police evacuated residents and closed off the surrounding roads, causing heavy traffic.

Guests and staff at the hotel were evacuated immediately but no one is thought to have been injured, they were later allowed to return.

Vertikal Comment

This accident on the face of it looks similar to the fatal accident in Battersea last year, with the top of the crane coming off of its tower.
Although if as we suspect, it was climbing, thin it has closer associations with the Caray Wharf incident in May 2000.

Fortunately in this case the top of the crane fell onto and became enmeshed in the building and did not fall to the ground, saving both the operator and any one below.

The difference in this incident is that it is almost certain that the crane, a much more recent model than the one in Battersea, was being worked on at the time. In all likelihood a simple error was made during the extension sequence which caused the accident.

Select, part of the Laing O'Rourke group have a first class reputation for safety and good practice and the crane was relatively new and state of the art.

Hopefullly the HSE will report on what happened a good deal faster than has been the case on previous accidents so that we can all learn form any mistakes made.