19.11.2008

Keep an eye on your back

We were sent some photographs by a reader in Western Australia, regarding a recent accident with a 160 tonne All Terrain crane. The crane belongs to one of Australia’s most diligent crane hire companies, which runs new well maintained cranes and highly trained and certified operators with a strong safety and quality ethic.

What this accident, which occurred last month in Wangara, near Perth, shows is how easy it can be for something to go wrong in spite of all this, unless the operator remains totally diligent and aware on a 360 degree basis.
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Must keep an eye out behind as well!

In this case the crane was well set up with the outriggers extended and some decent cribbing under the pads. The one error was that the crane was set up too close to the props retaining the top of an installed concrete tilt-up panel wall to the rear. The operator was lifting a new panel into place and with all his attention focused on the hook, he clearly forgot one of the basics – Tail swing.

We understand that the crane’s counterweight touched one of the upper props as it slewed, pulling the eight metre high, panel wall down on the back of the crane. Thankfully the 22 tonne panels remained locked in and no one was injured, while damage to the crane, a Terex Demag AC160-2, belonging to Freo Cranes, was apparently minimal.
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A close up of another view shows what happened

The most damage was probably to the operator’s ego, one thing is for sure he will be double checking his tail swing when setting up in future.