10.12.2013

A lucky escape in Bergen

The boom of a loader crane collapsed yesterday dropping a skip onto two vehicles in Bergen, Norway – in a street close to the city’s main shopping centre.

The crane, a Fassi owned by Svanco Transport, was lifting the skip down from the fifth floor of a building with a fully extended seven section boom and four section jib when the second hydraulic boom section either snapped or came out of the lower section. Both the boom and skip came down onto the two vehicles, one of which was completely crushed. The drivers had to be cut from the vehicles but fortunately only suffered minor injuries.
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The crane was lifting a skip from the fifth floor of a building when a boom section either snapped or came out of the lower section

An investigation is currently underway to determine the cause of the incident which is thought to have been captured on CCTV.

One of the readers who notified us of this incident, who lives in Bergen, said: “I have to say, that it seems to be very common around Bergen to use loader cranes to lift and lower items onto the roof of buildings during maintenance or refurbishment. The work often takes place above busy areas, with little or no coning-off or restrictions to traffic or pedestrian access during the lift.”
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The incident could have been so much worse

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The remains of one vehicle

Vertikal Comment

This incident could have been so much worse and everyone here is lucky that we are not looking at multiple fatalities. The investigation will of course focus on how a boom could fail so catastrophically.

Lifting loaded skips carries its own risks, until the load is fully on the hook there is no telling how heavy it is, and then it is likely to be loaded unevenly - so when lifting down from such a height it is always worth having plenty of spare capacity in hand.