OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14482152
WORK RULES,CRAWLER CRANE,CONSTRUCTION,POWER TRANS APPAR,CRANE OPERATOR,MECH MALFUNCTION,OVERTURN,UNSTABLE POSITION
Event description
Employee killed when crawler crane tips over
Investigation abstract
On May 4, 1987, Employee #1, a crane operator, was traveling with a load attache operator tried to move over or around the piece of concrete, but the crane kicke d back and the engine stalled in reverse configuration, completely reversing all its mechanical power-transmission apparatus. As the crane attempted to maneuver around the piece of concrete, the boom structure and load swung downhill toward the river embankment on Employee #1's right side. After a failed attempt to swi ng the load back uphill toward the hospital, he tried to lower it. The main hois t drum assembly foot brake was down and in a locked position, but with the mecha nical power-transmission apparatus in reverse, the main hoist drum assembly rota ted upward rather than downward. Employee #1 tried this maneuver several times u ntil the crane load suddenly stopped because the assembly was in a locked positi d to the crane's main hoist line. The crane load consisted of ICE 26-in. swingin on. This sudden stop created a dynamic (loading) to the crane and caused its uph ill track to lift up. The crane overturned, killing employee #1. g leads, 72-ft-long and weighing 7,920 lb; construction form; a continuous fligh t auger, 16 in. in diameter, 59 ft long, and weighing 3,127 lb; and a Model 3040 4,500 lb auger drive for a total weight, without the drilling attachment, of 15 ,547 lb. The crane was traveling between the south side of a hospital and a rive rbank, over an area of fill 17.5 ft deep and consisting of brown silty clay with fragments of rock, brick, coal, concrete, and roots. As the crane moved from we st to east, a piece of concrete surfaced in front of its right track. The crane
Victim
-
#1 Fatality Age 54 M
- Nature of injury
- 21
- Part of body
- 19
- Event type
- 1
- Source
- 27
- Occupation code
- 999
- Human factor
- 9
- Environmental factor
- 13
- Task assigned
- 1
Codes shown verbatim from OSHA's accident-investigation database. A human-readable decoder is coming in a future release once the accident_lookup2 dictionary is loaded.