Telescopic crane crashes into £1m luxury house

A telescopic crane toppled over onto a luxury £1m house after a last minute change in the lifting plan. Nobody was hurt in the incident on Friday at Broadstairs in Kent.

The incident happened on Friday while the 50t Demag crane was attempting to lift a container - over the newly constructed house - with 32m of jib extension. Crane owner Tony Bedingfield of Bedingfield Lifting told CJ that as the crane started to lift the container it slowly toppled forward onto the building and also damaged an excavator parked nearby.

He said the original lift plan required the crane to lift the container at 10m radius (outreach), slew through 180º and place it onto a truck at 6m radius. However he said a truck did not turn up and the driver was asked to lift the container over the house.

“The driver couldn’t see the container and as he started the lift the load indicator alarm sounded and the crane started to topple slowly forwards – but it was too late to drop the load,” he said. As the crane toppled forward its windscreen was shattered as it struck the cab of an excavator.

Developers Lilybrooks was two weeks away from handing over the house. Director Jim Cornish said the first container had been cleared and he was frustrated by the accident which will set the handover back about six weeks.  

“We had done everything right, nobody was near the building and nobody was hurt,” he said. Beddingfield echoed the sentiment: “If there is one saving grace, it’s that nobody was hurt,” he said, but added that the crane operator was badly shaken.