13.04.2008

Crane drops load on car

A telescopic truck crane dropped a roof section onto a parked car in Lauderhill, near Fort Lauderdale, Florida on Friday night. The crane was removing the last piece of old roofing from a 10 storey building, as the crane lowered the four metre by 1.2 metre section to the ground a corner of it gave way causing the slings to come off allowing it to fall. One end of it landed on the car which was parked directly in front of the crane.
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The fallen roof section

Flying debris also broke the window of a nearby apartment but no injuries were reported and the crane was unaffected. Although if the load had fallen just half a metre over, it would have caught the carrier cab.

Vertikal Comment

In this accident the crane was correctly set up and operated, but the load was not adequately rigged. The old roof was obviously not in great shape and should probably have been supported underneath rather than just at each end.

This could so easily have been a much worse accident if the section had broken at a greater height.