Laing O'Rourke crane collapses onto hotel in Croydon

A crane belonging to Laing O’Rourke plant arm Select Plant collapsed onto a hotel in Croydon, south London, at the weekend. The injured operator had to be rescued by the fire brigade and was taken to hospital but his injuries are not life threatening.

London fire brigade liaison officer Paul Jenkins told CJ the alert was raised at 2.22pm. “The crane driver survived but was trapped and the crane itself was in a very unstable position,” he said.

A bystander at the time of the incident said the noise was so loud he thought a bomb had gone off.

See Contract Journal on Wednesday for more details.

Collapsed crane: the Croydon incident on Saturday 2nd June 2007