16.09.2015
Crane slew ring bolts shear
The superstructure of a boom truck broke from the truck yesterday while lifting a tree in Mt Lookout on the east side of Cincinnati, Ohio.
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The crane was lifting a tree from the back yard of the home when the incident occured
It appears that several slew ring bolts failed while the crane was lifting a section of the tree - that has come down during an earlier storm- causing the boom of the vintage Manitex to break free and slice through a garage alongside the house, amazingly it came down alongside the car parked inside and narrowly missed a co-worker. Thankfully no one was injured in the incident.
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A closer look at the bearing
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The slew ring bolts sheared
Michael,
your passion on this issue matches mine regarding Telehandlers, Access and Cranes. It is about time that the USA Crane industry grew up and made major inspections mandatory, and then when the industry gets the message, use a different method for compliance. CraneSafe in Australia has a great program of inspections and labelling the compliant equipment. The "Do Not Ask, Do Not Tell" defence does not work, as the equipment can be forensically inspected and OSHA may slap a fine. No jail time, but that also needs to change for fatality incidents.
Refer to the Australian information :
http://cranesafe.com.au/docs/default-source/general-documents/guides-major-insp-crack-testing.pdf?sfvrsn=2
Have a look and make up your mind about change. The system in Australia works well.
o
Well said Mr Float,
As this is yet another Example of No Pre-Use Inspections, as Slewing Ring Bolts only Shear as a Result of being Loose, Missing or not Torqued-up correctly : All of which would have been spotted during the Pre-use Daily Inspection ?
( What I call the 10 point check) : Thus Confirming that a Sloppy Approach to Crane Safety, produces a Sloppy reaction.
And with 209 Men, Women and Children all Killed by Cranes and/or Lifting Operations since 1st Jan 2014. It is is Now High Time ( High Time) that the Crane Industry Worldwide, upped its game ?
Worker Safety is my Core Value, please make it the same in every Workplace.
Kind Regards
Mike Ponsonby
I wonder how many bolts were showing signs of imminent failure at this manhine's last inspection ?
I wonder when this machine was last inspected ?
I wonder how heavy the tree section was ?
I'm sure I'll never know the answers - I wonder if anyone actually does ?