Posted on 02/27/2016 8:09:13 AM PST by PROCON
On February 5, a windy day in Lower Manhattan, a 565-foot crane collapsed and killed a man when it struck the parked car in which he sat. Crews had been planning to secure the Worth Steet crane because the forecast projected sustained winds at stronger than 25 mph, but they were too late.
After the collapse, Mayor Bill de Blasio required crawler cranes, the mobile type of crane that can move around a work site, to cease operation and transition to safety mode anytime there are sustained winds of more than 20 mph or gusts of more than 30 mph forecast in New York City. "No building is worth a person's life," de Blasio says. "We are going to ensure the record boom in construction and growth does not come at the expense of safety."
The fact is, though, that deadly crane crashes are far too common. Some of the largest crane collapses on record have the most devastating effects in big cities, such as a 2008 New York accident that killed seven people and destroyed buildings when a 200-foot-tall crane collapsed. Such events highlight the awesome and scary power of cranes, especially in dense urban areas where these ever-growing machines (record-holders now stand more than 300 feet tall, telescoping to more than 500 feet) work right next to pedestrians and drivers. It's a recipe for danger if crews aren't exceedingly careful.
(Excerpt) Read more at popularmechanics.com ...
Having worked in the union construction industry in NYC I can tell you these things are a result of a numberof factors. Insuffcient or shoddy inspection, (in some rare cases throguh pay-offs), improper installion and or safety proceedures and untrained or poorly trained operators.
Crappy Chinese steel?
Because they are unbelievably heavy, and tall, with an insufficient ratio of base area to height?
That is fricking awesome. Would love to walk out that crane like that.
This guy would NEVER have succeeded in building the Pyramids.
Its the Gravity Waves, man.
I was just going to say how that picture made my knees feel strange.
Obey the law...of gravity, ignorance is no excuse.
In short “Incompetence.” That was the first word that came to mind when I read the title.
When I am that high up I like to surround myself in a nice airplane.
“Its the Gravity Waves, man”.
You’re right. lol
I was thinking, “because they’re tippy,” but yours is better.
Ninety crane-related deaths a year, in a population of nearly 319 million, does not put crane deaths among our top health risks. Although I have to admit that I’ve seen sites in Chicago where I really thought they should have shut a block down rather than let people walk and drive so close to a work area when there are gusty winds going.
I think part of the problem is that people have too much confidence that something bad won’t happen when there’s construction overhead. I wonder what percentage of these deaths are people who had the option of avoiding the situation, and choose not to.
I, too have some experience with heavy construction in NYC. My experience is in geotechnical construction, not building high rise structure, but we still used heavy lift equipment regularly.
I’m no fan of unions, or working in NYC by any means, but NYC does have the best union trained operators of any I have worked with, and the inspection of cranes is also unparalleled.
There is some other factor, I do not know what is it, but operator training and inspection are not, IMO, the cause. Operator error, failure of operator or supervisors to follow procedures, unexpected wind loading, load charts that are not conservative enough, improper anchorage, etc. are all possible contributors.
It’s a bad scene, they have had far too many accidents, and high profile ones at that, and something has to change, but pinpointing that factor or combination of factors is obviously very difficult, or we would have the problem solved.
That is a great big bucket of NOPE! for me!
Newton wasn’t effing around!
There is a reason walking under a ladder is bad luck: Stuff can fall on you.
Multiply stuff by a couple thousand pounds, and add 20-30 stories to it, and it really becomes bad luck to walk under.
But you will not get me up on a non flying platform, in the air, with nothing but air between my feet and momma earth.
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