We have only just learnt of an incident in the Sengkang region of Singapore on April 9th in which a telescopic crawler crane overturned onto a minibus while being loaded onto a low loader.
The crane, a relatively new looking 80 tonne Sany SCC 800TB-5, is owned by Ten-League Engineering Solutions. From what we have been told by an observer, the crane was reversing onto the low loader with the boom at around 45 degrees, then a length of one of the tracks went over the edge of the trailer as the operator attempted to steer the crane back on centre. He had apparently climbed out of the cab to survey the situation when something caused it to slip off the trailer entirely. It must be said that we have not been able to fully corroborate these finer details, but it is supported by other eye witness accounts in the local news reports.
As the crane slipped off the trailer, the boom came down on the bus, completely crushing it, the driver, having seen the crane start to move, jumped out and ran for the barrier, but sustained an injury to his head and was treated in hospital and then released.
A spokesman for the Singapore Civil Defence Force said: “The van driver, a 28 year old man, was injured but conscious when he was taken to the hospital. The crane operator, a 49 year old man, was arrested for negligent conduct.”
The van was apparently used to take children to and from school and had only just dropped the last of them off when the incident occurred. The van was in a line of traffic that had stopped for a red light.
The job site, managed by Building Construction Co, is installing a new sewer line for PUB, the national water agency. Building Construction Co confirmed that the crane belongs to Ten-League and says it has been helping the police and the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) with their investigation.
We have contacted Ten-League for a comment and will publish anything we receive. The company runs an extensive fleet of lattice and telescopic crawlers as well as Rough Terrain cranes the vast majority manufactured by Sany.
The overturned crane was later recovered by two large All Terrains from the Hiap Tong fleet, the entire job was capture on the video below. Also below is a video from a passing motorist who stopped to survey the scene.
Video from the scene
The Recovery If you cannot reach this video there is a link below.
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