Crane accident - very bad outcome

pantheraba

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I captured this from Facebook...a friend in Ohio is in the "big-boy" construction business...he helps build Cabella's type stores...he is one of their chief riggers for some pretty serious crane work. He's kind of like Kyle here...knows a lot of good stuff in-depth.

He knows I do treework and came across this somewhere...I searched youtube and could not find it. Anyway, I captured it from FB (he private messaged it to me) and I have it posted on my youtube acct. It is unlisted there so maybe it is not "shareable"...which is fine with me.

The climber....looks like a 3rd world country, no PPE, crazy work positioning...makes his cut and has no clue that he is in the absolute worst place he could be. If you can't handle seeing a death happen then don't click on the video...for you guys that use cranes it will probably give you serious pause:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/nVjyxqGcsgk" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
Can a crane be positioned to not be able to fall on the cut? I can't imagine how without letting the wood swing off the cut which is dangerous too.

I don't know what they were looking at, but bail out and run! Don't just sit there.
 
Load charts exist for a reason. Sad, but the phrase know enough to get yourself killed comes to mind
 
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I didn't know it was verbotten. Figured it might give folks another angle to think about.

My first thought was, "Man, I don't even want other folks to see that...bad juju." But it helps emphasize the dangers involved with trees and big equipment. Just regular trees are bad enough...factor in big steel and the possible things that can go wrong increase a lot.

Bail out, Nutball? I don't think that guy had any rope at all....looked very hinky/bad as far as his safety protocols go. It makes me realize I need to stay ever vigilant to what MIGHT go wrong....a crane failing was not on my list of bad stuff until I saw this.
 
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  • #9
Yep, that did look like a big piece....and I wonder if the crane was properly maintained.
 
He might not have seen it, I'm super observant though, so if I saw it coming I'd try to unhook from the tree or lean to the side. I'd rather a big fall than getting hit like that.

I guess its another good reason to have a quick bail out plan. I was thinking a few days ago how i wouldn't mind setting a new tie in point below each chunk as I chunk a tree just in case I or a ground man had to lower me quickly.

Ground man got lucky as long as he stood still.
 
WOW!
2nd man might not have made it either, not sure why he was there in kill zone..
>>seems he saw it coming tho..
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That is a lot of tree,moving, pulling at angle....'
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Would say crane as minimal ,portable structure for a job dictates pure straight up pull only on static target.
No impact or angle,just clean pick.
Crane only as good as ground it stands on also.
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Bail out would be to hope to get lucky jumping thru roof to break fall.
Very sad.
 
Ouch. It does help to see stuff like that occasionally to bring the right element of sobriety to the work we do. Our crew had to think & plan very carefully 2 days ago, using our grapple crane over the house roof to reach the backyard -- fully out at 55', lifting a big Siberian main trunk. Boom rating, sling rating, angles, outrigger pads, everything had to be right as the homeowner looked on a tad nervously as we lifted it up & over his rental property's roof. No failures, no injuries, log safely loaded on the log truck. Homeowner impressed.
 
Can a crane be positioned to not be able to fall on the cut? I can't imagine how without letting the wood swing off the cut which is dangerous too.

I don't know what they were looking at, but bail out and run! Don't just sit there.


Maybe an answer to the wrong question.
 
. Sad, but the phrase know enough to get yourself killed comes to mind

Agreed

He wasn't tied in, was sitting in a crotch, saw was lanyarded the tree. In addition to probably picking far too heavy, looks like the piece was not fully cut off so it acted like a peavey and levered the crane far out of its safe radius
 
Yah. Hard to watch. Like he just fixated on the tree and had no thought/awareness that sh-t was about to rain down on him.
 
Buddy boy had so much time to jump on that corrogated roof to safety. It was like he thought the tree is gone and that is it. A whole heap wrong in this scenario. That vid had been posted all over the world. People now know treework should be left to professionals. Man was in above his head. Sad for his family.
 
Construction worker died today in Kansas City. He was working on the new convention center/hotel & fell from 23 stories up. Job site closed down for investigation. Main GC saying it was a subcontractor worker. Obviously not strapped in. I'm sure OSHA will be on the scene tomorrow.
 
I read up on that a bit, sounds like he was a drywall guy who was supposed to be on the 8th floor, but somehow fell from the 18th. I don't want to speak ill of a man after such a tragedy, but to me that sounds like a suicide.
 
Looks like the tree stopped the boom from falling right after he took the almost certainly fatal hit to the head.... He might have survived that if he was wearing a hard hat., or had looked up, as he had time to jump.. Boom stopped on the tree for a moment, while he fell out of the way. When the boom did finally fall off the tree, he was well away from its path.....

Whil e some may think this is gory, it serves the very real purpose of reminding us all how dangerous this work is, and that one mistake can kill!!! Stay safe and God bless us ALL!
 
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