New Falcon safety threat uncovered

A tower crane belonging to Falcon Crane Hire was served a prohibition notice between the Battersea and Liverpool crane collapses, CJ has learned.

The notice was issued by the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) in December after notifiable faults went uncorrected for nearly four weeks. It followed the collapse of a Falcon crane in Battersea in September 2006, which killed two people, and came a month before a fatality in January 2007, when one of Falcon's cranes fell down in Liverpool.

On 29 November, a Falcon employee carried out an inspection on a tower crane on a Gladedale site in Epsom, Surrey, during which defects were noted. However, when an HSE inspector visited the site almost four weeks later on 21 December, repairs had not been carried out and a prohibition notice was issued, citing loose bolts and one stretched bolt.

A Falcon spokesman confirmed its employee had inspected the crane, but said only a stretched bolt was noted. He said this was not reported to the maintenance department before the individual concerned went on a four-week holiday, but once the prohibition had been served, the fault was rectified within 24 hours.

A UCATT spokesman was critical of the latest revelation. He said: "There is growing concern throughout the industry about the safety of cranes. The discovery of the latest safety lapse underlines that far more needs to be done to ensure the safety of cranes.

"Confidence about crane safety will not return to the industry without a high profile and vigorous safety inspection and enforcement regime. It is incumbent on all workers to report concerns about crane safety to the relevant authorities. Any delay could cost lives."

A Falcon spokesman said the company has now achieved ISO 9001 and has systems in place to prevent a recurrence of these events. He also said the employee who had failed to report the stretched bolt before his four-week holiday is no longer working for the company.

On 17 January, after the Liverpool incident, the HSE placed a prohibition notice on all Falcon tower cranes that had been inspected by Falcon employees. While the independent inspectors reported about 10% of Falcon's cranes had Category A defects (those which should be corrected before the crane can be put back into use), the hirer claimed many of the independent inspectors had little experience with crane maintenance.

According to Falcon, defects "worthy of further investigations" were found in less than 5% of the 195 cranes inspected and these were rectified before the cranes were put back in service.

In late January 2007, the HSE issued a warning regarding the correct installation of high-tensile bolts, but said this was not connected with investigations into the Falcon accidents, which are ongoing.