Original Story (11/6/2011)

A Juneau construction company has been fined in connection with a deadly crane accident.

The Juneau Empire says the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has fined Trucano Construction Co. $5,000 in connection with the death last year of 75-year-old Boyd Cody.

The company was cited in January for failing to properly secure a crane to a barge before it toppled over and crushed Cody. The company also failed to provide formal training on the hazards of loading materials on barges that are afloat.

Company owner Douglas Trucano says the accident was Cody’s fault, despite the citation and fine. He says the only responsibility he feels is allowing Cody to continue working at the age of 75.

A self-propelled boom lift being used to carry out work to a church in Roxwell, England, plunged into a grave, or the church crypt on Wednesday.

Thankfully no one was hurt in the incident at the 16th century St Michael’s Church in Roxwell, Essex. Essex County Fire & Rescue assisted with the recovery of the 6.5 tonne machine, using airbags and a winch.

As to who was disturbed in the incident we have no news.

The owner of a trailer lift and the engineer who inspected it have been charged with Negligent Homicide in Norway

The owner of a trailer lift and the engineer who inspected it have been charged with Negligent Homicide in Norway, following a 2010 fatality.

The incident occurred in September 2010 in the town of Enebakk, when a man aged 60 rented a telescopic trailer mounted lift to carry out inspection work to antennae on the church roof.

The lift, of 1999 vintage had received its annual inspection some nine months earlier in January. The engineer that carried out that work, has been charged with failing to notice severe corrosion around the back of the chassis and the rear outrigger brackets.

We understand that by September the problem was causing the outrigger interlock switches to go off, and the owner, a local man, is accused of having ignored or overridden one or more of them to solve the problem, rather than shutting the unit down and having it checked out.

The problem then manifested itself while the 60 year-old man inspecting the antennas at a height of around 11 metres. The frame around the outriggers gave way and he fell to the ground. He died the following day from his injuries.

A four axles All Terrain crane went over in Singapore this weekend as it unloaded a container from a truck.

The crane was owned and operated by Kim Soon Lee and was lifting the container, outside a unit on the Changi North Crescent industrial park. The company claims that the load inside the container either shifted or was unbalanced causing the crane, which must have been close to its limit for its set up, tipped over the back.

The container came crashing down onto the truck, but we understand that no was injured in the incident.

A construction worker Arris Tunc, Age 34 was killed Friday in Secaucus, N.J., when a construction lift he was working in tipped over [and he fell some 45 feet from a work platform].

The worker for Cipillini Roofing of Clifton, N.J., was rushed to Hackensack University Medical Center after the accident at about 9 a.m., according to a local official on scene.

It happened at an apartment complex under construction on Meadowlands Parkway.

The lift was on unleveled ground, though did not tip completely over.

It’s heard that the worker may likely not have been wearing his harness.

A 240 ton five axle All Terrain crane overturned at a rental company in Orange County, California this morning. The crane, a Grove GMK5240 owned by Crane Rental Service overturned at its yard in West Collins avenue while being tested or inspected.

The crane’s boom was fully extended and the outriggers fully set, when the unit tipped over the back, the boom nose struck the ground, causing the boom to buckle. The operator was thrown through the superstructure cab windscreen, falling around three metres to the ground, however the operator declined any medical attention.

As to how it happened, we do not know for sure, but the crane was not fitted with counterweight, and the boom was probably reaching a critical angle, depending on what was on the hook at the time. It was being tested or inspected when it went over.

An accident involving several cars and a crane on a citybound lane of the Anzac Bridge caused significant delays this morning, the NSW Transport Management Centre says.

All citybound lanes were closed after the crash about 8.30am, a spokesman said.

Video footage showed the boom of the crane was wedged into the back of a passenger car.

One person was treated by paramedics for minor injuries and taken to St Vincent’s Hospital in a stable condition.

The lanes were reopened about 9.55am.

The spokesman said earlier: “It’s a very busy thoroughfare at this time of the morning and it will take a little while for the traffic to clear.”

Separately, a 12-year-old boy was hit by a car on Victoria Road, North Parramatta, about 7.25am, a NSW Ambulance spokeswoman said.

The boy was taken to hospital in a serious condition with head injuries.

A man was shocked and burned by powerful current from high-voltage lines that pass over a construction site where a bridge will be built over the Beaver River.

Century Steel Erectors construction manager Rubbie Greenewalde said the iron worker was standing on a barge on the river and had contact with a line extending down from a big crane at about 8:35 a.m. Wednesday.

“We still don’t know whether it was an arc, or whether the crane touched the wires, but the man apparently got shocked by grabbing on to the cable from the crane,” Beaver County Commissioner Tony Amadio said.

Bill Pasquale, of Medic Rescue ambulance service, said another deckhand was standing on the barge and may have been insulated because of his shoes.

Pasquale said there was “a loud noise, or a loud bang. That’s why we’re not sure if the crane even contacted the wires. But it got close enough to at least arc the electricity from the high tension lines to the crane itself.”

The injured worker was taken to Heritage Valley Beaver hospital and then transported by helicopter to a Pittsburgh hospital.

“We feel very sorry, of course, for the individual that was injured. We’ll be in close contact with the family and so forth as we’re moving forward here in the next few hours, but it’s certainly a very disheartening situation, tragic situation,” County Commissioner Dennis Nichols said.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration will investigate.

“We know it’s a 23,000-volt conductor,” Nichols said. “When you say ‘juice,’ that’s current flow. Nobody’s going to be able to tell you that. It was a 23,000-volt line.”

A 40-year-old man was not injured after the 50-ton crane he was driving on U.S. 26 rolled off the highway this afternoon in western Washington County, Oregon State Policereported.

About 1:40 p.m., Daniel S. Henderson, of Estacada, was driving a 1991 all-terrain crane east, near Manning, when he moved to the highway’s shoulder to allow traffic to pass, said Lt. Gregg Hastings, a state police spokesman. He was driving at a speed of about 5 miles per hour when the crane’s right, front tire traveled off the pavement and onto a soft, dirt shoulder, Hastings said.

The 44-foot crane reportedly slid and then rolled onto its side off to the right of the highway.

Henderson was driving for Marks Brothers Inc., which is based out of Boring, Hastings said. The company reportedly called for a tow company to remove the crane.

The crane was still off the highway when police left the scene.

A construction crane accident late Tuesday night caused huge backups on I-95 near the Boulevard exit.

There were no injuries from this accident, just a lot of headaches for driver trying to make their way through this area.

Crews had to stop traffic for 15 minute intervals all night. Cars were bumper to bumper trying to get through downtown Richmond as traffic was down to one lane in each direction.

The scheduled bridge work on the Westwood Avenue Bridge has been canceled. Crews have been doing bridge work in this area during the overnight hours for the past few weeks.

V-DOT says you should expect major delays if your morning commute takes you through here. They recommend you make a detour and avoid this area altogether.

Richmond thru travelers are strongly encouraged to use I-295 to bypass downtown Richmond. Local traffic should use Route 1 or the Downtown Expressway (toll)/I-195.