26.05.2016

Crane collapses into street

Two passers-by were injured earlier today, when a tower crane collapsed in Makati City, in the Philippines.

The crane landed on overhead power lines which pulled over a concrete pylon which then landed on a passing taxi and a cyclist. Thankfully their injuries are said to be relatively minor.
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The crane landed in the street with one of the five poles landing on a taxi

The crane, a large luffer is working from the excavated basement of the building, with the superstructure barely three or four metres above street level, appears to have suffered a foundation failure, with the tower falling towards the street, causing the cranes superstructure to land in the road, as its jib went over the back. The impact took down five posts or pylons and cut power in the local area.
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Miraculously the driver was not badly injured

The contractor on site A.M. Oreta Construction Company apologised and issued a statement that said: “the incident happened around 7:50 a.m. this morning, affecting some electric posts and high tension wires, a taxi and a parked car that happened to be in the area during incident were struck, and two individuals suffered minor injuries, a taxi and bicycle rider, were immediately brought to a nearby hospital for medical treatment. The company will shoulder the medical expenses of the two victims”.

“We are currently conducting our own investigation on the cause of the collapse we are also cooperating with authorities on the conduct of their own investigation,”
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The incident could have been much worse, the jib landed between high rise buildings

The Makati mayor's office confirmed that taxi driver Ramon Romirosa, 47, showed signs of spinal injuries, while bicycle rider Romeo Lopez, 40, is suffering from a pain on left shoulder and abrasions on the knees and elbows. Mayor Kid Peña has ordered a thorough investigation on the incident and directed the Office of the Building Officials to immediately order the contractor to halt all operations on the Salcedo SkySuites building while the investigation is underway.

“We are determined to establish what exactly went wrong and who should be liable for the unfortunate incident. Although nobody died, still there were people injured. Public safety is the foremost concern of the city government, and we will not tolerate negligence and non-compliance with our construction laws and standards,” said Peña.
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A shot from the roof of a building over the street taken after the clean up was well underway