20.05.2008

Crawler crane in fatal tip

A crane operator died yesterday when his crawler crane tipped over on a bridge job near Des Moines, Iowa.

The operator, Dustin Flinn, 27, was working for bridge contractor, A.M. Cohron & Son Inc., of Atlantic, removing beams from an old I-80 bridge over the Iowa Interstate Railroad about a mile west of Adair in western Iowa.
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The crane just before the rescue operation began

Reports say that the operator had lifted a beam and was slewing it away from the bridge when the crane seems to have toppled over backwards into the railway cutting. The cranes boom came down across the tracks shutting the line.

Some reports say that the beam crashed into the cranes cab just before it fell, Finn had worked for Cohron for six years, He was married with a two year old daughter. Two large recovery trucks were brought in to winch the crane out of the cutting.