19.02.2009

Falling crane misses nuns

A self erecting tower crane working in the town of Safi on the island of Malta, tipped over on Monday, hitting a convent and narrowly missing two Dominican sisters and a workman.

The workman had been whitewashing a wall that was struck by the cranes jib, and reacted fast enough to push one of the sisters out of the way before the jib struck.
Please register to see all images

The fallen crane

The crane was being used by a contractor building an apartment block at a nearby site.

Malta’s Occupational Health and Safety Authority has investigated and says that it is considering legal action on the basis that preliminary investigations put the cause down to negligence. The authority is looking at the developer, the contractor, the project coordinator, the supervisor and the crane owner or its operator.

The crane, which was set up on outriggers, tipped over the side, while the outriggers were woefully set up with scraps of old wood, this was not the cause of the accident. It is almost certainly down to a form of overloading.

Crane operators in Malta do not have to be licensed or certified but under an agreed code of practice an operator must have “the necessary training and experience to operate the crane.”