Crane accidents - key issues explained

This page looks at the reasons behind the recent surge in crane accidents, including: news stories about crane accidents, statistics, comment from industry experts, and links to other useful websites about crane accidents.

Why has there been so much interest in crane accidents lately?

The last few years have seen a number of high profile crane accidents in which eight people have been killed. These accidents include:

• Forest Hill, South London, December 2007. The luffing jib of a crane owned by Deco Design & Build collapsed on a small housing site near Forest Hill station. The HSE investigation is ongoing.
• Croydon, June 2007. A crane operator wsa injured when a crane supplied by Laing O'Rourke subsidiary Select collapsed on a hotel in Croydon. The HSE investigation established that the top of the crane had not been connected to the climbing frame and served an immediate prohibition notice on Select.
• Liverpool, January 2007. One site worker was killed after being struck by the falling jib of a crane supplied by Falcon Crane Hire, on a David McLean site. The HSE is yet to pass verdict. Eye-witnesses have speculated that high winds may have caused the collapse.
• Battersea, September 2006. A crane operator and a passer-by were killed by a collapsing crane on a Barratt Homes site. The HSE is still investigating, having removed parts of the stricken crane for analysis at its laboratory in Derbyshire. 
• Worthing, February 2005. Two site workers were killed during the dismantling of a crane on a Willmott Dixon school site. The HSE passed a verdict of accidental death after finding that some bolts on the crane had come loose, which caused the collapse.
• Canary Wharf, May 2000. Three site workers were killed during a climbing operation involving a Hewden crane. The HSE has said it will probably never know the cause of the crane accident and that there will be no prosecutions. However, there is a civil case pending.

So are crane accidents actually increasing?

Despite all the crane accidents listed above, it is difficult to establish from statistics if crane accidents are increasing. The Health & Safety Executive says that crane accidents are still rare and there has been so significant increase in crane accidents recently. "However, because of the nature of tower cranes, when something goes wrong people get badly hurt or killed," it says.

In terms of fatalities, there have been eight people killed in tower crane accidents since 2000, a small proportion of the 532 deaths on UK construction sites over that period.

Accidents are harder to put a figure on. According to the HSE's RIDDOR (Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations) database, there were seven accidents involving tower cranes between 2004/2005 and 2006/2007. However, that may not be the full picture as there are anecdotal stories of accidents which are not reported.

What theories are there about the rise in crane accidents?

Historically, crane accidents have often been because of mechanical failure, as in the case of the Worthing crane collapse on a Willmott Dixon site in February 2005, where bolts had become loose.

However, many in the industry believe accidents are becoming more common simply because the workload is heavier. The UK's tower crane population has grown fourfold in the past 10 years, but the pool of competent, experienced and well-trained workers has not grown at the same rate.

"It's stretching the resources of tower crane owners to find experienced people," says plant consultant Tim Watson.

Some also feel that, with fewer cranes and experienced workers to shae around, maintenance and operations standards have fallen.

What is being done to reduce crane accidents?

The tower crane industry has done a lot to put its house in order since the accident at Canary Wharf in May 2000. A Tower Crane Interest Group has been set up within the Construction Plant-hire Association, and has produced many HSE-approved guidance documents and training courses.

One of its documents, Best Practice for Maintenance and Thorough Inspection of Tower Cranes, is due for publication in April 2008, following a consultation period.

However, TCIG chairman Paul Philips says that while the group can develop best practice guidance, "it's down to the companies to implement it".

Select Plant Hire, a subsidiary of Laing O'Rourke, has diligent safety procedures in place, as set out in its document Safe Operation of Cranes. However, Select was the owner and operator of the crane in the Croydon accident of June 2007.

The HSE periodically issues safety alerts on safe use of tower cranes, as it did in October 2006 following the Liverpool crane accident earlier that year. But it is unable to dissemniate accident-specific information because that could compromise future prosecutions. This position is criticised by some who feel that the information should be made known as soon as possible to help prevent a recurrence.

A consumer group was set up following the Battersea crane collapse of September 2006, the Battersea Crane Disaster Action Group. This has tried to heighten the dangers of crane accidents to passers-by - a man working on his car next to the site was killed in the Battersea accident.

Photos from recent crane accidents

• Croydon, June 2007
• Forest Hill, December 2007
• New York, March 2008

Other crane accidents links

• Health & Safety Executive construction page
• CraneAccidents.com - a global site devoted to crane accidents

Recent crane accidents news stories

• Crane driver paralysed in accident
• Liverpool crane collapse: tower and foundations scrutinised
• Crane collapses onto supermarket roof
• Bouncing builder in double roof fall
• £25,000 fine for roof death