13.07.2009

Container crane collapse at Southampton

A container crane has collapsed onto a ship at Southampton, UK, docks, this morning at the city’s Western Avenue container terminal.
The man, the crane operator, whose cab came down onto the ship, had his legs crushed in the accident and was airlifted to hospital with “life threatening injuries”.

Police are treating the incident as an industrial accident. The Health and Safety Executive has been notified and inspectors are due on the site later today.

We understand that the crane that collapsed is crane number six, one of five Morris cranes built in 1991-2, with 40.6 tonne lift capacity, 45.1 metres of outreach and 31 metres lift height.
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A photo of the scene at Southampton

An identical crane collapsed last January when the boom came down onto a Hapag Lloyd ship, closing the terminal for several weeks. All cranes of the same type were removed from service and fully inspected before being put back in service.

We can confirm that crane number six had not been extended in the same way as the crane that failed in 2008.

Early reports suggested that the front legs of the container crane gave way this time causing it to come down onto the NYK Themis container ship. However subsequent photographs that we have we have been sent indicates a boom or cab support structural failure.
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Vertikal Comment

To have one crane go down is bad, to have a second fail within 18 months, raises some serious questions. Handling containers is a fairly predictable process in comparison with many other types of crane work.

The conditions are all predictable and relatively constant so it is either very bad luck or smacks of incompetence to have two cranes fail in such a time frame.