30.07.2008

Crane hits platform in fatal accident - Updated

A 47 year old man, James Michael Miles, died yesterday near Smithville, Texas, when the boom lift he was working from was struck by a falling crane, throwing him out of the basket, his colleague survived thanks to his harness.

The crane collapsed while removing steel beams from an aging bridge over the Colorado River in Central Texas. Miles and his injured co-worker, also in his 40’s, were both working in the platform, a Genie S85, around 23 metres above the river.
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Tha fallen crane

The crane was slung to the beam which the two men were cutting free, when it suddenly dropped and its weight, along with the dynamic load, proved to be too much for the crane and it tipped.

As it went over it hit the basket of the boom lift, which tipped forward and crashed into the river. Both men were employed by Stomper Demolition in Euless, and both are said to have been wearing harnesses.

The crane operator who works for Crocker Crane Rental of Austin Texas, the crane’s owner, was unhurt.

Texas Department of Transportation spokesman Marcus Cooper said another worker was injured when the crane became overloaded and tipped over.

Capital Excavation of Austin, is the primary contractor for the project, Croker Crane Rental was established in 1994 and runs a fleet of 24 cranes, the largest of which his a 300 tonner.

Vertikal Comment

This is the second time in less than a week that a crane has dropped a load or its boom onto an aerial lift which has then resluted in a fatality.

In this case when cutting steel work free for the crane to then hold, there is always a risk that it might go over, so ideally the boom should be positioned out of the fall line. However this is often easier said than done, and sometimes there is no option.

We do not know at this stage if the man that died was killed by the falling beam hitting him, or from the fall or from drowning.

In an application such as this the IPAF recommendation is that a harness not be worn as the lift was working over water.