Crane boom collapses; no injuries reported

CASPER Wyoming— A crane boom collapsed near the intersection of East Second and McKinley streets on Monday afternoon.

No injuries and no extensive property damage were reported, said Lee Watts, safety manager for Energy Transportation Inc.

A small utility shed located behind a business was destroyed in the crane’s fall, however.

The accident occurred at about 3 p.m. Monday as workers were attempting to pin the 350-ton crane’s boom after the move of a structure near the intersection.

Late Monday, workers with the company were still working to secure the boom.

Manitowoc Crane investigating fatal accident

Pennsylvania

SHADY GROVE, Pa. — Manitowoc Crane Group is investigating the cause of a Jan. 4 accident that led to the death of a Chambersburg, Pa., man, a company official said Tuesday.

Jeffrey Cowan, 41, died Sunday from injuries sustained in a fall at Manitowoc Crane Group in Shady Grove.

The company is unclear what caused the accident, said Dennis Rooney, vice president of human resources for the Americas division of Manitowoc Cranes.

Cowan was working on the deck of a crane in the final assembly area when he fell, Rooney said. He died less than a week later.

“It is upsetting what happened to Jeffrey,” Rooney said. “He was a great man. Our hearts go out to his family.”

Because the incident resulted in a fatality, the Occupational Health and Safety Administration has visited the manufacturing facility on Pa. 16 east of Greencastle, Pa., Rooney said.

The Shady Grove plant, formally Grove Worldwide, was purchased by Manitowoc in 2002, and produces small and large cranes.

The plant is one of Franklin County’s largest employers.

Rooney said Cowan worked in the final assembly area and had worked at the plant for a little less than five years.

Before coming to Manitowoc, Cowan served in the U.S. Marine Corps and was a veteran of Operation Desert Storm, according to his obituary.

Two Workers Killed in Crane Accident Kotka, Finland

Yesterday 06:19 PM, updated today 11:09 AM

Two men died when this basket crane collapsed.

Two people were killed on Tuesday when they fell from a basket crane in downtown Kotka. The men were cleaning a building’s gutters when the sidewalk under one of the basket crane’s supporting legs collapsed.

Rescue services who responded to the accident say the men fell from the second or third storey. Other workers on site were able to move away in time from the crane.

The fire marshal on duty, Ahti Savolainen, says that the supporting leg appears to have been standing over a hollow pocket under the sidewalk. The leg dropped one and a half metres through the sidewalk. The street was closed to traffic for several hours.

Henry man dies in crane accident

Friday, January 1, 2010

A Henry man drowned on Oct. 5 when the crane he was operating slid off a barge into Smith Mountain Lake.

Roger Dale "Peanut" Goad, 55, was dismantling a boat dock on River Creek Road at the lake when the 10-ton crane slid off the barge and into about 50 feet of water, 100 feet offshore. After interviewing two witnesses who were working with Goad, Lt. Karl Martin with the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries said, "It appears he was attempting to save the equipment when the crane went into the water." The accident was investigated by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

Fire boat personnel and other authorities examine a barge where Henry resident Roger Dale Peanut Goad, 55, drowned on Oct. 5 when the crane he was operating slid off a barge into Smith Mountain Lake.

Construction Worker Dies at Shaw Airforce Base

Sumter, SC – Sumter County authorities say a man doing construction work at Shaw Air Force has died following a workplace accident Wednesday morning.

Sumter County Deputy Coroner Rob Lybrand said that Brian Lowry was working on an I-beam 20 feet above the ground. At some point, another I-beam being lowered by a crane hit him.

Lowery, who’s from Tennessee, died at the scene. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating the incident.

Lowery was at Shaw working for a Georgia subcontractor. The company is building the new headquarters for the 3rd Army Command, which is relocating from Fort McPherson Georgia to Shaw.

Man dies in Houston crane accident

A crane collapse in Houston has killed a 41-year-old man.

Police say the accident happened at a printing company.

Police say Cesar Barrios Gomez of Houston was dead at the scene.

Authorities say Gomez had been trying to maneuver the crane to another location when the base failed and the crane topped. The victim was pinned beneath the equipment Monday night.

Police told the Houston Chronicle that the crane had a maximum capacity of 1 ton and that Gomez allegedly overloaded it.

Barn rises — mostly the old-fashioned way

Back in the old days, a barn was typically built by a couple hundred musclemen, said David Flaud, an Amish timber framer.

On Thursday, Flaud and about 20 workers used a hydraulic crane to lift beams 40 feet off the ground and build a roof on a new barn on Anthony Road in Washington Township, just north of East Berlin, Adams County. The heavy equipment provided a safer and more efficient way to move the beams to the top of the structure, he said.

"We used to push them up by hand," said Flaud, co-owner of Flaud Builders in Blair County. "My father was a timber framer. And my grandfather."

The building project should be done in roughly two weeks, said Jeff Stern, owner of the barn. The new structure replaces an 1891 bank barn that was

struck by lightning and burned in July, he said.

"I like the bank barns … the old way they were built," Stern said. "I am friends with an Amish guy and he recommended … Flaud."

Stern, owner of JS Construction, helped work on the 3,800 square-foot barn he said will have an open floor plan and be used to store hay and farm equipment.

Loy Elliott of East Berlin said his family owned a similar barn in Iowa.

"I just stumbled upon this by accident," he said of the barn raising. With Stern’s permission, Elliott — who said he volunteers to do documentary work for the Land Conservancy of Adams County — photographed the construction of the barn.

"This is for me," said Loy, 61. "I wanted to document them putting up a post and beam barn."

He said he’d never seen the Amish build a barn.

"This is rare," he said. "I’ve been interested in this construction since I was a kid … I’ve been a student, I guess, of barns."

1 dead in Kansas City, Mo., crane accident

Nov 10, 2009

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — One worker was killed and another injured Tuesday when a crane tipped over at the construction site of a Kansas City, Mo., performing arts center, police said.

The two men were in the bucket of the 100-foot-tall JLG Lift when it fell away from the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts and landed across a platform of steel beams at about 1:40 p.m., officials said.

One of the men was pronounced dead at a hospital, said police spokesman Darin Snapp. The other was listed in serious but stable condition and was able to talk. Snapp said both men were in their 30s, but their identities were not immediately released.

Kansas City Missouri police officers look at a portable boom lift that fell at the construction site of the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2009, in Kansas City, Mo. One worker was killed and another injured Tuesday when a crane tipped over at the construction site, police said.

The men were installing steel panels on the building for Detroit-based subcontractor Midwest Steel, said Kyle McQuiston, spokesman for Kansas City-based general contractor JE Dunn Construction Group.

Construction on the 13-acre site began in 2006 and is scheduled to be finished in 2011. The $400 million center will be the home of the Kansas City Symphony, the Lyric Opera of Kansas City and the Kansas City Ballet.

McQuiston said the construction site had no previous fatalities or injuries.

Workers were sent home for the day while investigators examined the site, said JE Dunn president Dan Euston.

"We have an onsite safety team down there and are working with investigators, both local and any federal agencies, to determine what caused this accident," Euston said. "We’re very deeply saddened by this event. Our heartfelt thoughts and prayers are with the families."

Crane accidents kill up to 82 construction workers each year in the United States, according to the U.S. Occupational Health and Safety Administration. A crane at the construction site of a new federal courthouse in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, also collapsed Tuesday, but police say no one was hurt.

A construction worker died last month after falling from a lift that toppled over and struck a downtown Philadelphia apartment building.

And two New York City crane collapses in 2 1/2 months during the spring of 2008 left nine people dead. Investigators have blamed faulty rigging of an 11,000-pound crane part in the first of those accidents, which killed seven people on March 15, 2008.

New Crane Operator Regulations in the Works

For the first time since 1971 the federal government is updating crane regulations. Triggered by various lethal crane accidents around the country this past year, the U.S. Department of Labor is set to release drafts of the new regulations, which focus mainly on crane operator standards.

New Standards

The new regulations will require crane operators to pass both written and practical tests in all 50 states and complete more training. Currently only 15 states and 6 cities require tests. Crane operators will have various options to become certified/qualified under the new rules:

• Certification through accredited third-party testing organizations
• Qualification through audited employer testing programs
• U.S. military-issued qualification
• Qualification by state/local licensing authorities

In addition to the certification and training of crane operators the new rules also hone in on inspecting ground conditions, crane assembly and disassembly, operating near power lines, and the use of safety devices and crane inspections.

It is expected that the final approval of all of the regulations will “likely take more than a year.”

Sources:

(1) Devlin, Barrett. The Associated Press. September 18, 2008.

NAHETS Crane Operator Training & Certification

Member schools of the National Association of Heavy Equipment Training Schools (NAHETS) across the country offer mobile crane operator training and certification programs. Each of the member schools are authorized to administer the NCCCO Mobile Crane Certification tests. They also offer training from instructors, all holding NCCCO Mobile Crane Operator Certifications, to prepare for the tests. Visit the NAHETS Crane Site for more information.

Georgia School of Construction Elects Non-Renewal Status with NCCER

On August 1, 2008 Georgia School of Construction (GSC) elected to not renew its Accredited Training Sponsor and Accredited Training Unit status with the National Center on Construction Education and Research NCCER. In late August GSC notified NCCER of its intended actions regarding election to not renew its training entity status with NCCER; however, the value of the NCCER sponsored training curriculum; i.e., Contren Learning Series will remain an integral part of the GSC and all NAHETS member schools’ curriculum.