Crane crushes house while delivering pool

[nathank]

Not mine, but wow!

 

[GarageEnvy]

And suddenly my bad day at work pales in comparison

 

[bobemmerich]

That'll ruin your day! It ***** that it happened, but at least everyone was ok.

 

[Jack Olsen]

Wow.

Why on earth would it even occur to somebody to go with that kind of solution. You could just roll the thing to the back yard on short telephone polls or possibly even 55 gallon drums. Why lift it up over the house?

 

[cdseven95]

Kind of similar a neighbor of mine was having a tree removed from the front of a ranch style house... The company ended up dropping the tree through the house...


The contractors insurance company paid out enough to add a second floor to the house and all repairs... They had to stay in a hotel for about a year though (paid of course)

 

[A_Pmech]

And that's what's called reaching the tipping limit on the load chart...

 

[paranoid56]

Wow.

Why on earth would it even occur to somebody to go with that kind of solution. You could just roll the thing to the back yard on short telephone polls or possibly even 55 gallon drums. Why lift it up over the house?

because its normal to use cranes like that. the operator apparently miss judged the load however lol

 

[rvr6000]

This was in Shoreview, one of the northern suburbs here. They couldn't get it around the house because of the trees or fence or something like that. Kind of hard to tell from the video but it was supposed to have been a pretty good sized hot tub. The crane operator said it was a malfunction in some computer system on the crane......must alert you as to when you are close to exceeding some limits or something. If it's anything like our ladder truck at the fire dept it will not let you extend the ladder to its full extension if you exceed a particular weight restriction.

 

[Motofixxer]

Yep, I'm no crane operator and I can tell that's a bit of a reach with high probability for disaster.

 

[danski0224]

Too far out and too low.

Should have got a bigger crane.

 

[Morrisman]

Wow.

Why on earth would it even occur to somebody to go with that kind of solution. You could just roll the thing to the back yard on short telephone polls or possibly even 55 gallon drums. Why lift it up over the house?

A demonstration of utter third world incompetence! Where was this, Nigeria, India?

Nobody thought to work out the safe working load of the crane/load? Nobody is wearing hard hats. No tag lines, and I see no observers?

Maybe 20 years working offshore has made such things seem second nature to me, common sense almost, but with a $150,000 + crane and a similarly price house, and several lives at stake, I guess somebody will maybe spend a few minutes thinking and planning about lifting the load next time, instead of rushing in like a clown.

Just because it says '50' tons on a crane doesn't guarantee it can lift even 2 tons in a full boom out position.

 

[Buford T. Justice]

A demonstration of utter third world incompetence! Where was this, Nigeria, India?

Nobody thought to work out the safe working load of the crane/load? Nobody is wearing hard hats. No tag lines, and I see no observers?

Maybe 20 years working offshore has made such things seem second nature to me, common sense almost, but with a $150,000 + crane and a similarly price house, and several lives at stake, I guess somebody will maybe spend a few minutes thinking and planning about lifting the load next time, instead of rushing in like a clown.

Just because it says '50' tons on a crane doesn't guarantee it can lift even 2 tons in a full boom out position.

RVR posted above that this happened in Shoreview, Minnesota.

 

[brewchief]

Too far out and too low.

Should have got a bigger crane.

Looks like they could have placed the crane a lot closer to the garage and kept it in closer and kept the stick up more. Looked to me like enough crane just not enough operator.

 

[TAftw]

Looks like they could have placed the crane a lot closer to the garage and kept it in closer and kept the stick up more. Looked to me like enough crane just not enough operator.

I've heard companies won't run equipment on a driveway because depending on the machinery it can crack the asphalt. Don't know how true that is though.

So was it concluded to be operator error or a problem with the crane?

 

[Stuart in MN]

The story they reported on the local news is that it was a problem with the crane software.

 

[rvr6000]

I've heard companies won't run equipment on a driveway because depending on the machinery it can crack the asphalt. Don't know how true that is though.

So was it concluded to be operator error or a problem with the crane?

From my post above......the crane operator said is was a malfunction of some computer component.

As a side note: The other day I watched a guy deliver a load of lumber for my neighbours new deck. I didn't know how he was gonna off load it with the cherry picker thing on the lumber truck due to all the power, cable and telephone lines running down the alley that then split off to the individual homes. But he took his time and dropped it right in the guy's back yard over the chainlink fence like it was no big deal. I was impressed.

 

[shanker]

ouch

 

[GeorgiaHybrid]

He should have been closer and bolted the jib boom on the end to extend the reach but keep the main boom closer to vertical. The jib is bolted to the first section and can be seen at the start of the video.

No question as to the problem. Operator error.

 

[justanengineer]

That was awesome, nothing but operator error to blame for that one. Not sure how they do it in the civilian world, but in the military the number one rule in crane operations is know your load, know your limits, and dont rely upon the load limiters to keep you safe.

For those interested in seeing more...

http://www.craneaccidents.com

 

[DHS]

Wow.

Why on earth would it even occur to somebody to go with that kind of solution. You could just roll the thing to the back yard on short telephone polls or possibly even 55 gallon drums. Why lift it up over the house?

Probably not enough property to roll it back there. In some subdivisions around here there is only about 4' from house to side property line.

 

[Boost Creep]

it was obviously a chinese made crane

 

[Garage5.9]

if you're having crane problems I feel bad for you son, I got 99 problems but a crane aint one...

 

[smalltruck]

The company is TCS and their guys are usually pretty damn good. Obviously something happened in this one besides the crane is missing the counterweights. So yeah I'm going with operator error. TCS also has a crane capable of about a million pounds. Fully equipped it takes about 8 semi's to move it. I've helped haul that one several times

 

[LawnDart79]

"god dammit"

Understatement of the year!!!

 

[rickairmedic]

Anybody wanna bet the operators pants were not brown when he got in the cab and were brown when he got out of the cab .


Rick

 

[danski0224]

The company is TCS and their guys are usually pretty damn good. Obviously something happened in this one besides the crane is missing the counterweights. So yeah I'm going with operator error.

I can't believe that an operator would be stupid enough to operate a crane without counterweights.

 

[justsam]

Is this "highly trained, skilled professional" crane operator talking about the software that is supposed to be running in his brain or something else?

Is he suggesting that my life/safety, and the life/safety of my family is in the hands of some software code writing geek?

As has been mentioned here, there were so many things wrong with that operation that it should be shown as a training film of what not to do.

This whole crane operation team needs a re-boot!

 

[HoseB]

I can't believe that an operator would be stupid enough to operate a crane without counterweights.

Eh...he probably would've installed them if the hot tub was full.

 

[danski0224]

During the video, just before the crash, it sure sounds like alarms going off in the background.

 

[Ford12508]

Using a crane to put a hot tub in place is actually kind of common. This was not a hot tub though, but a continuous pool, so it is bigger and heavier than a hot tub. A lot of times people have swampy back yards, want it on a deck, or want it on a cut out in a hill. You cant roll a 750+ lb tub back there with a normal crew. I have moved full size 6-8 person hot tubs up onto a deck before by hand. A 1' increase in the mud takes a lot of work, and some big air bags.

 

[Gary S]

Anybody who trusts a computer to decide something like that can expect to get burned.

A great lesson for the believers in technology.

 

[rvr6000]

"Is he suggesting that my life/safety, and the life/safety of my family is in the hands of some software code writing geek?"

Unlike the computer that designed your car, the computer flying your airplane, the computer that monitors your home security system???....and if it weren't for the computer you watched the youtube video on no one outside of the Twin Cities would have ever known anything about this accident. It's not that big of a deal....**** happens.....life is dangerous.

 

[IDASHO]

**** happens. And even the best operators make mistakes. Unfortunately when it comes to heavy machinery, there is no such thing as a small mistake.

I 100% believe the story about software error. But I would also go another step further and say that is was probably more like false input from a sensor or two. Bad info is worse than no info. No info would create a fault, and send an error message to the operator.

Regardless of what anyone here thinks, NOBODY can work out the math and physics in your head when you are on the stick of a computer controlled rig. NOBODY. Everything is computer controlled. The joysticks and pedals are not connected to valves, they are connected to circuit board, a processor, miles of wire, and electric valves. The system has hundreds of sensors, all designed to do the hard work for you. All the while not allowing you to do the hard work. Its a damn video game unit, relying on those sensors to provide the computer(s) with the appropriate and real time data to control the machine and make calcs.

I also find it funny how so many scream operator error. Id be willing to bet most that have claimed operator error have never in their life even sat in a crane, let alone operate one.

 

[A_Pmech]

The FIRST think I learned about cranes is that the onboard load sensing system is a safety feature, like an airbag. It is not a replacement for the load tables.

Regarding trusting computers, be thinking about that the next time you fly to your favorite tropical destination:

As the Boeing programmers say "No nerds, no birds."

 

[Jackfre]

On the good news front, at least it was lined up properly so it only tipped rather than going over. That was fortunate. Boy, I feel badly for that operator.

I've worked under a lot of cranes and cherry pickers and as in anything else, there are operators and there are OPERATORS. Back then there were no "computer generated limits". The operator had to know if he could safely make the pick.

 

[theoldwizard1]

Is he suggesting that my life/safety, and the life/safety of my family is in the hands of some software code writing geek?

Over 50% of the gasoline cars and 100% of the diesel pick up trucks built in the last 10 years have no physical connection from the gas pedal to the throttle (in a diesel, fuel injection pulse). In many (most?) cases the computer that opens the throttle has software written by a totally different company from the company whose computer read the pedal position.

Being a geek paid well for me !

 

[walrus]

He should have been closer and bolted the jib boom on the end to extend the reach but keep the main boom closer to vertical. The jib is bolted to the first section and can be seen at the start of the video.

No question as to the problem. Operator error.

Looked like he was lowering the boom instead of lowering the pool with the cable, maybe to get more reach?

 

[z28snksknr]

Just another example of the lack of personal responsibility these days. The operator made an error in judgement or relied on his safety equipment (software) so he didn't have to think his limitations and then he blames the SOFTWARE for not saving his ***?

Humble yourself, own your mistake, and learn from it. Then teach others.

 

[some zilch]

as a licensed and somewhat experienced crane operator (unfortunatley more familiar with modern cranes than older ones), a crane of that modern vintage should have shut itself down when it approached being overloaded. there is an ungodly number of failsafes built into modern cranes, and if you breathe the wrong way, it locks itself out. i am sure things could have been better planned/estimated, but there sure could have been a software malfunction. ours has them constantly, but they are more of an annoyance than a danger to anyone. i have hauled more than my fare share of cranes; old and new, and every single one of them was laden with electronics--either from the factory, or as a retrofit as an insurance requirement.

its amazing how all these internet-crane-operators can call it toally operator error, without ever operating one, or most likely even standing next to one.

 

[Morrisman]

RVR posted above that this happened in Shoreview, Minnesota.

I was being sarcastic.

The story they reported on the local news is that it was a problem with the crane software.

Regardless of software, the operator should know how much weight he can lift at what boom angle. In the old days there was a simple chart glued to the wall of the cab, but I guess that is all replaced with a computer program and a minimum wage operative nowadays. Even a huge crane can hardly lift it's own boom at maximum reach. The distance to be moved, and the weight of the load, should have been measured first, before the crane was even dispatched.