Near miss at Wembley as 30t girder crashes down

An horrific accident at the Wembley Stadium site was narrowly averted last week when a 30t steel beam crashed down on to the stadium roof.

Eyewitnesses said workers scattered as the beam, which was being lifted by a tower crane, slid towards the edge of the roof, its fall finally halted by supporting scaffolding.

The Health & Safety Executive (HSE) has ordered all tower cranes onsite to be grounded while Multiplex and HTC Plant carry out an investigation into the cause of the accident.

An HSE spokeswoman told CJ: "We have sent a formal letter to Multiplex requesting it stop using all Wolff luffing tower cranes until it discovers and rectifies the problem and provides the HSE with the documentation confirming this."

A spokesman for HTC Plant said: "Safety must come first. All tower crane work has been halted until a thorough investigation is carried out. We believe the problem lies with the way the crane operator braked and we will now ensure this does not happen again."

One site source said: "It would have been carnage if that load had landed on the men. Only the stanchions stopped its fall."

He added: "There was little steel work happening with Fast Track still in transition after taking over from Cleveland Bridge – losing the cranes for a few days will not make much difference."

A Multiplex spokesman said: "Multiplex has suspended work on the cranes pending the arrival of the German manufacturer to ensure the equipment is safe. Our expectation is that the cranes will be back in operation this afternoon (Monday 16 August)."