4 ms·

> Statistics from the United States Dept. of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that the United States suffers nearly 90 crane-related deaths per year In

by jakub_g 11y ago

> Statistics from the United States Dept. of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that the United States suffers nearly 90 crane-related deaths per year In Europe I almost never hear about crane accidents, either they do not happen as often or are underreported. Anyway, seems me being uncomfortable walking past them is not too much paranoic.

SixSigma 11y ago
From the UK govt.'s Health and Safety Site [1] Since 2001 there have been 61 accidents involving tower cranes [in the UK]. 9 people have died, and 25 have been seriously injured. I don't know why they chose that year, perhaps in response to the highly publicised crash in London in 2000 which claimed 3 lives [2] [1] http://www.hse.gov.uk/construction/safetytopics/cranes.htm http://www.hse.gov.uk/construction/safetytopics/cranes.htm [2] http://www.hse.gov.uk/construction/crane/ http://www.hse.gov.uk/construction/crane/
- easytiger 11y ago
  In those stats 2 deaths + 5 injuries are from a helicopter crash, i'd guess: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vauxhall_helicopter_crash https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vauxhall_helicopter_crash
cr1895 11y ago
There was at least one notable incident in the Netherlands last year, where a dual crane lift of a bridge section went horribly wrong and everything came crashing down onto the houses nearby. This is in Dutch, but there's video of the incident: http://nos.nl/artikel/2050161-kranen-met-brugdeel-vallen-op-huizen-alphen-aan-den-rijn.html http://nos.nl/artikel/2050161-kranen-met-brugdeel-vallen-op-... Fortunately, there were no fatalities.
- jacquesm 11y ago
  Amazingly there were no fatalities (other than a dog that was in one of the houses that collapsed). When you watch the video of that accident instinctively everything tells you that it is much more than just material damage, and I clearly remember being extremely relieved that nobody died. Here is a video of the accident: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2Da6FoWh3k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2Da6FoWh3k
  - cr1895 11y ago
    Yeah it was really startling to watch it unfold. It's difficult for me to follow since little technical info has been released in English. What I can gather is that they failed to account for the changing stability of the barge, and coupled with a crane that wasn't designed to slew while tilted shit hit the fan.
    - ams6110 11y ago
      I can imagine that a dual crane lift introduces a lot of variables that are not nearly as well understood or tested by manufacturers as the parameters on a single-crane lift.
      - cr1895 11y ago
        It's not unprecedented. It's obviously more complex but it is well understood. Something cool: there's a number of dual crane heavy lift vessels, such as the Thialf which has an insane combined lifting capacity of 14,200mt. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SSCV_Thialf https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SSCV_Thialf
jacquesm 11y ago
2012 http://www.nu.nl/binnenland/2904543/omgevallen-bouwkraan-blokkeert-weg-in-delft.html http://www.nu.nl/binnenland/2904543/omgevallen-bouwkraan-blo... http://www.nu.nl/binnenland/2722183/veel-files-omgevallen-bouwkraan-a50.html http://www.nu.nl/binnenland/2722183/veel-files-omgevallen-bo... 2013 http://www.nu.nl/binnenland/3522514/mobiele-kraan-omgevallen-in-rotterdam.html http://www.nu.nl/binnenland/3522514/mobiele-kraan-omgevallen... 2014 http://www.nu.nl/binnenland/3953199/koppel-van-omgevallen-kraan-ijsselstein-keert-terug-van-reis.html http://www.nu.nl/binnenland/3953199/koppel-van-omgevallen-kr... And the one last year mentioned elsewhere in this thread in Alphen. That's just NL, and probably not all of them.
blackstrype 11y ago
I don't think I've ever seen mobile/crawler cranes here in Paris. All of them seem to be tower cranes and the structures seem quite stable (I couldn't find death by crane stats with a quick google). These tower cranes I see everywhere are on fixed construction sites... I suppose the use of mobile cranes is more for renovations -- and yes they seem very dangerous in comparison to a fixed-base crane. But still, when one is going to the effort of building/renovating something of such magnitude, why can't a fixed-base crane be used ? If done right it shouldn't be too hard to mount and dismount a modular tower crane -- maybe there's a market for this sort of thing...
- cr1895 11y ago
  >yes they seem very dangerous in comparison to a fixed-base crane. I think this is a rather baseless assumption. Properly engineered and planned lifting from a mobile crawler crane should be inherently no riskier than that from a fixed crane. Lifts from both fixed-base and crawler cranes are subject to operator error and maintenance-related risks. My experience is limited to very big cranes on ships (both fixed and crawler) where everything is engineered and planned to (speculating here) a much higher degree. Maybe it's not comparable to the typical (smaller) construction cranes you see in cities.
  - sschueller 11y ago
    I believe fixed-based cranes in many countries get inspected and certified to a specific job/load after installation while mobile cranes do not have this requirement.
- lhopki01 11y ago
  Yeah I very rarely see crawler cranes here in London. The only times I see them are to disassemble tower cranes. I wonder if this has to do with the size of streets in New York vs London. In New York most streets are wide enough to accommodate a crawler crane while in London big crawler cranes have to be disassembled and brought to the building site in pieces and can't site in the street beside usually.
  - 11y ago
placeybordeaux 11y ago
90 deaths per year in the US is a absolutely tiny amount. You are more at risk for almost any disease, not to mention getting hit by a car.

by jakub_g 11y ago

SixSigma 11y ago

From the UK govt.'s Health and Safety Site [1] Since 2001 there have been 61 accidents involving tower cranes [in the UK]. 9 people have died, and 25 have been seriously injured. I don't know why they chose that year, perhaps in response to the highly publicised crash in London in 2000 which claimed 3 lives [2] [1] http://www.hse.gov.uk/construction/safetytopics/cranes.htm http://www.hse.gov.uk/construction/safetytopics/cranes.htm [2] http://www.hse.gov.uk/construction/crane/ http://www.hse.gov.uk/construction/crane/

easytiger 11y ago
In those stats 2 deaths + 5 injuries are from a helicopter crash, i'd guess: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vauxhall_helicopter_crash https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vauxhall_helicopter_crash

cr1895 11y ago

There was at least one notable incident in the Netherlands last year, where a dual crane lift of a bridge section went horribly wrong and everything came crashing down onto the houses nearby. This is in Dutch, but there's video of the incident: http://nos.nl/artikel/2050161-kranen-met-brugdeel-vallen-op-huizen-alphen-aan-den-rijn.html http://nos.nl/artikel/2050161-kranen-met-brugdeel-vallen-op-... Fortunately, there were no fatalities.

jacquesm 11y ago
Amazingly there were no fatalities (other than a dog that was in one of the houses that collapsed). When you watch the video of that accident instinctively everything tells you that it is much more than just material damage, and I clearly remember being extremely relieved that nobody died. Here is a video of the accident: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2Da6FoWh3k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2Da6FoWh3k
- cr1895 11y ago
  Yeah it was really startling to watch it unfold. It's difficult for me to follow since little technical info has been released in English. What I can gather is that they failed to account for the changing stability of the barge, and coupled with a crane that wasn't designed to slew while tilted shit hit the fan.
  - ams6110 11y ago
    I can imagine that a dual crane lift introduces a lot of variables that are not nearly as well understood or tested by manufacturers as the parameters on a single-crane lift.
    - cr1895 11y ago
      It's not unprecedented. It's obviously more complex but it is well understood. Something cool: there's a number of dual crane heavy lift vessels, such as the Thialf which has an insane combined lifting capacity of 14,200mt. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SSCV_Thialf https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SSCV_Thialf

jacquesm 11y ago

2012 http://www.nu.nl/binnenland/2904543/omgevallen-bouwkraan-blokkeert-weg-in-delft.html http://www.nu.nl/binnenland/2904543/omgevallen-bouwkraan-blo... http://www.nu.nl/binnenland/2722183/veel-files-omgevallen-bouwkraan-a50.html http://www.nu.nl/binnenland/2722183/veel-files-omgevallen-bo... 2013 http://www.nu.nl/binnenland/3522514/mobiele-kraan-omgevallen-in-rotterdam.html http://www.nu.nl/binnenland/3522514/mobiele-kraan-omgevallen... 2014 http://www.nu.nl/binnenland/3953199/koppel-van-omgevallen-kraan-ijsselstein-keert-terug-van-reis.html http://www.nu.nl/binnenland/3953199/koppel-van-omgevallen-kr... And the one last year mentioned elsewhere in this thread in Alphen. That's just NL, and probably not all of them.

blackstrype 11y ago

I don't think I've ever seen mobile/crawler cranes here in Paris. All of them seem to be tower cranes and the structures seem quite stable (I couldn't find death by crane stats with a quick google). These tower cranes I see everywhere are on fixed construction sites... I suppose the use of mobile cranes is more for renovations -- and yes they seem very dangerous in comparison to a fixed-base crane. But still, when one is going to the effort of building/renovating something of such magnitude, why can't a fixed-base crane be used ? If done right it shouldn't be too hard to mount and dismount a modular tower crane -- maybe there's a market for this sort of thing...

cr1895 11y ago
>yes they seem very dangerous in comparison to a fixed-base crane. I think this is a rather baseless assumption. Properly engineered and planned lifting from a mobile crawler crane should be inherently no riskier than that from a fixed crane. Lifts from both fixed-base and crawler cranes are subject to operator error and maintenance-related risks. My experience is limited to very big cranes on ships (both fixed and crawler) where everything is engineered and planned to (speculating here) a much higher degree. Maybe it's not comparable to the typical (smaller) construction cranes you see in cities.
- sschueller 11y ago
  I believe fixed-based cranes in many countries get inspected and certified to a specific job/load after installation while mobile cranes do not have this requirement.
lhopki01 11y ago
Yeah I very rarely see crawler cranes here in London. The only times I see them are to disassemble tower cranes. I wonder if this has to do with the size of streets in New York vs London. In New York most streets are wide enough to accommodate a crawler crane while in London big crawler cranes have to be disassembled and brought to the building site in pieces and can't site in the street beside usually.
- 11y ago

placeybordeaux 11y ago

90 deaths per year in the US is a absolutely tiny amount. You are more at risk for almost any disease, not to mention getting hit by a car.