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| US Government [Note that the couterweight stacks remained intact even though the house had been flipped 180 degrees.] |
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| 20171204 8380 |
This photo shows a Manitowoc 2250 crane in its stowed or parked position because the day was too windy to work. The boom attached to the crane is called the main boom, and the boom attached to the main boom is called the luffer jib. Typically, the main boom is called the boom and the luffer jib is called the jib.
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| Digitally Zoomed |
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| Peter Quinn posted |
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| This is one in a sequence of 13 photos showing a luffer crane "waking up" in the morning. |
If you scroll down in this page you can find a video of the crane falling over. After the videographer observes that it is falling over, mute the audio because the rest of the sound track is just continuous expletives.
The Liebherr LR1300 had a 194' main boom with a 371' luffing jib. It was installed on the street to raise generators and cooling towers onto the roof of a 25-story building. There was no load on the crane other than the "headache balls" (hooks) as they were trying to lay the boom down on the street to weather a windy snow storm that was in progress. Evidently the crane was left overnight with its boom up because the first thing the operator tried to do when he arrived was to lower the boom. The report is a little ambiguous, but it sounds like the crane was parked overnight with its boom and jib at 80 and 45 degrees, respectively.
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| Page 7 |
So strike one was that they did not park it overnight in a Jack Knife position.
The report on page 14 talks about the main boom angle in Figure 12 but doesn't say anything about the luffer angle. If I look at Figure 12, the operator lowered the main boom instead of the luffer boom. Specifically, the main boom went from 80.1 to 69.4 to 34.5 while the luffer was still at 13.9. Lowering the wrong boom would be strike two. Unlike baseball, that is enough strikes to be out.
Furthermore, a storm had been predicted:
At the end of the day on February 4, 2016, the weather forecast for the wind for the night and the next morning were reportedly known to Galasso Trucking & Rigging Inc. but no decision was taken to lay down the crane. That proved to be a grievous error. . [Page 35]The report could have stopped right after the computer read-out analysis because the two errors that caused the problem have already been identified: 1) it wasn't stowed properly, especially since a storm had been predicted and 2) the jib was not lowered before the main boom was lowered. Instead the report continues with a wind analysis that concludes that it is safe at any wind speed between 20 and 30 mph with an 80-degree boom angle and it is not safe at any wind speed at a 69.4-degree angle. In fact, the manufactures load chart does not even have entries for angles below 75 degrees. Was this wind analysis done because government employees feel that they have to write long reports even if it means inventing some filler? Or is it done to try to distract the reader from the root causes --- operator errors? One tidbit I did learn by scanning the report is that, because of the long jib, it is not safe in the jack knife position for winds above 20mph according to the operators manual. The boom should have been laid down overnight given the prediction of a storm. But when email was sent to Liebherr for an analysis of this specific case, the jack knife position would have been safe up to 67 mph.
The site plan indicates the crane should be stowed in a jack knife position, pages 36 and 46. The report whines about the plan not indicating which angles it should be stowed with. But if everybody is willing to ignore that the crane was left sticking up in the air rather than jack knifed, they sure aren't going to pay attention to specific angles. Furthermore, as long as the end of the jib is resting on the ground, I don't think the angles matter. So the author's concern about the specific angles indicates a lack of expertise concerning cranes.
The operational error of the crane not being properly stowed before the storm is not only the fault of the person sitting in the chair, but his entire line of supervision and all contractor and city employees who are responsible for safety/inspection.. Somebody should have noticed that the site was left with a "ticking time bomb" standing up in the air. If none of the safety and/or inspection personnel for that site in a city that large could recognize a problem that is that obvious, then what kind of personnel competency are the city fees and city taxes paying for?
As for the operator lowering the boom instead instead of the jib, did panic cause such a significant "brain burp?"
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| John Hartline commented on Clyde's posting [Another example of luffer cranes being parked in the jackknife position overnight. This is two Manitowoc 2250's at a Notre Dame job.] |
This was another example of a crane falling over because the main boom was lowered before the luffer jib was down far enough. Unfortunately, this accident killed a young boilermaker.
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| Ryan Box posted Anyone have any information on this accident? Curtis Collins That is an 18000 that went over at Iatan generating station in Missouri back around late 07 early 08. Supposedly they boomed it up to check wind speeds while over the side and while booming it back down it went over. Killed a boilermaker. I was out there and have a lot of photos of that accident. Robert Callahan I loaded that machine out... All bought it, they gave $1 million for it and all they wanted off of it was the tracks... Greg Scher I ran the 4100 right next to it for 18-months. Dennis McKnight was the operator for Maxim. He blew 0.35. Maxim never fired him, at least not then. The kid that died had just gotten back from Iraq and had a very young wife with a brand new baby. Dennis was a cocky jerkoff. The wagon was unhooked and he forgot to lower the block to the ground before knifing down and the added 14,000 pounds of the block and additional cable weight pulled him over. Ironically, the safety man was standing on his catwalk next to his door talking to him when it happened. A dear friend of mine, Mike D Wimmer, was the Master Mechanic at the time. [Does "blew 0.35" mean an alcohol test result? I believe 0.08 is too much for driving a car.] James Wright What was the wind speed? Don Kemerling James Wright wind hit 37 mph about that time, as I recall, but they tell me the main boom was too low. Jamie Shields His luffer wasn't lowered to the correct angle before he main boomed down. It had boomed up and down at least a dozen times without the wagon. John Coffey It was right at the limits booming down without the wagon. Dennis had got away doing it multiple times without leaving the block and ball on the ground to keep from getting sand on the cable. They had also changed the mats that day the double mat bad was running parallel with the tracks might have a couple of things that resulted in the accident but the bottom line is if Maximum and KCP&L had spend the money for steel plates to level the mats so they could have used the wagon they tore the swing shafts out twice trying to use the wagon on a unlevel surface. Guess only Dennis knows for sure and he passed away this year. Thomas Sheffield Most dangerous part, at least to me, of those big iron cranes is getting to the ground and off the ground. Be it drunk operators, inexperience, stupid people making decisions. If you don't like something, say something. Darrold Elliott Just curious what conf. And what boom to luff angle he used ? Especially being over the side. Nancy Kwiatkowski Bryan I was part of crew that cleaned up the mess. They literally examined the crane as they would a plane crash. Laid it all out. Boilermaker was inside duct work when crane came down, never saw it coming. There was always a rumor that the operator let the safety man sit in the seat while they were doing a wind test. Not sure if that was ever proven. Darrold Elliott Nancy Kwiatkowski Bryan Sad to hear that . But very true on how they should examine the accident. Once these kind of accidents start to go there’s no return. Always very important to know and understand these cranes big and small . The proper operating procedures ,and knowing there limits. Very important to read the warning and danger paragraphs. That’s where a lot of information is at. |
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| Warren Dave commented on Ryan's post |
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| Curtis Collins commented on Ryan's post |
An operator avoiding a weather induced luffer crane accident:
Elaine Peterson posted two photos with the comment: "With dad in Wheeling, IL again and they are laying boom down for the night."
Kevin Morehead Why lay it down?
Fletcher Bolton Good move, specially in unpredictable weather.
(Facebooked)
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