Number 12 Crane Collapses on House
In September of 2018, a large crane collapsed on a house in Baldwin Park,
an upscale neighborhood in Orlando, Florida. The roof of the home was undergoing construction work
when the truck securing the base of the crane, which had been parked in front of the house,
partially turned over. The machinery’s mast landed on top of the building and basically
tore the roof in half. Aerial footage obtained by a local news crew showed the massive gash
that the crane had left behind. Fortunately, no injuries were reported in the accident.
The company operating the machinery didn’t comment on what had led to the collapse.
Number 11 Runaway Wrecking Ball In July of 2007, a massive wrecking ball
came loose from a crane cable then rolled down a street in Meadville, Pennsylvania,
wreaking havoc in its path. The wrecking ball measured about 3 feet across and weighed over
1,400 pounds, meaning it was considerably heavier than the average grizzly bear. It was being
used to demolish part of a library from a local college. As the ball came loose it raced nearly
three quarters of a mile downhill. It bounced from curb to curb, damaging more than a dozen vehicles.
It ultimately came to a stop after slamming and becoming lodged into the trunk of a sedan.
The impact launched the vehicle forward, causing a chain reaction with two other
cars which were at the traffic light. Three people were reported as having been injured
but none to a life-threatening degree. Number 10 Cranes Fall in Tandem
In August of 2015, two cranes collapsed in a tandem attempt to lift a section of a bridge
in Alphen aan den Rijn, in the Netherlands. The cranes, with 400 ton and 700 ton respective
capacity, were on separate barges and gearing up to lift the bridge segment from a third barge.
It would’ve been maneuvered in between the two cranes and then sailed to the installation site
to be fitted into the existing bridge. As the multi-ton segment was being hoisted, the entire
lifting assembly collapsed in a domino effect. The smaller crane’s barge sloped to the point
that its mast failed, and the machinery toppled over. It pulled the bridge section with it,
which in turn caused the collapse of the larger crane. A number of shops and homes surrounding the
construction site were destroyed but, amazingly, no one was hurt. A subsequent investigation
would reveal that the lift had been doomed from the start due to a combination of overloading,
insufficient stability and the inexperience of the barge and crane operators.
Number 9 Building Collapse in Bangalore In 2018, a building collapse in Bangalore,
southern India, left at least 3 workers dead and several others trapped. Construction on the
5-story office building had begun six years prior and, after stopping halfway through, work had
resumed a few months prior to the accident. While the exact cause of the collapse wasn’t determined,
preliminary findings suggested that it fell in line with other similar incidents. Crumbling
buildings are, unfortunately, not uncommon in the country. They stem from high-demand and lax
regulations which have led some builders to add unauthorized floors or use substandard materials.
After the Bangalore office building fell over, two workers were found dead in the debris while
a third succumbed to his injuries in a hospital. Rescuers saved at least seven others who’d become
trapped inside the collapsed structure. Number 8 Willow Island Disaster
The Willow Island Disaster is often described as the deadliest construction accident in US history.
In April of 1978, a cooling tower was being constructed at the Pleasants Power Station,
on Willow Island, West Virginia. The scaffolding was bolted to the structure it was being used to
erect. As layers of concrete were being added, the scaffolding was steadily raised as well,
with cranes being used to hoist the buckets of concrete. By April the 27th, the cooling tower
had reached 168 feet, meaning it was about as tall as Paris’ Arc de Triomphe. Shortly after 10:00 am,
the cable pulling the concrete buckets slackened and the crane collapsed towards the inside of the
tower. Layers of concrete started unwrapping from the structure, causing the scaffold to plummet
inside the tower’s hollow center. 51 construction workers were on it at the time and they all
fell to their deaths. Many of them could only be identified by the contents of their
pockets. An investigation by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA,
cited the contractors for 20 violations. Some of the most significant safety lapses included
not giving the concrete enough time to cure before anchoring the scaffolding, using bolts
of inferior quality and only using one access ladder, which meant that escape was restricted.
Number 7 Dongguan Crane Collapse
In April of 2016, Chinese authorities confirmed that 18 workers perished in a tragic crane
collapse. It occurred at a factory construction site in Dongguan, in the Guangdong province. The
machinery involved in the tragic accident was a gantry crane, also known as a portal crane,
which is used to straddle heavy objects. According to subsequent reports on the matter,
it had been blown over in a gale. It collapsed on top of a temporary dormitory, which was used
to house workers. Aside from the registered fatalities, over a dozen workers out of the 88
that had managed to escape the building suffered injuries. Officials announced that the equivalent
of more than $3 million was assigned to the construction company, in a special fund, so that
it could cope with the aftermath of the collapse. Number 6 West Gate Bridge Collapse
On the 15th of October, 1970, a section of the West Gate Bridge collapsed in Melbourne,
Australia. To this day, it’s referred to as the country’s deadliest construction accident.
A 367-foot span of the bridge dropped 164 feet into the Yarra River. The section
weighed roughly 2,000 tons. To put the scale of the disaster into perspective, it would be like
the combined weight of 20 blue whales plummeting from near the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
The impact shook buildings thousands of feet away and spattered nearby houses with ejected mud.
Many of the workers who perished were having lunch in huts beneath the structure.
They were crushed to death in an instant. Others fell to their death from the collapsing bridge.
A Royal Commission into the accident underlined several contributing factors. It was a combination
of structural design and an unusual method of construction by the bridge’s contractors.
A 4.5 inch gap difference was found between two spans of bridge that were about to be aligned.
10 concrete ballast cubes, each weighing about 8 tons, were used to weigh down the higher span.
Their weight, however, caused the section to buckle and eventually snap off.
Number 5 Unnamed Fallen Worker In November of 2020, an unnamed
construction worker suffered a horrific fall at a construction site in Moorebank, southwest Sydney.
The 49-year-old man plummeted nearly 33 feet through aluminium roofing. He was rushed
to Liverpool Hospital in stable condition but had sustained multiple fractures in both legs.
Paramedics considered the worker fortunate as the fall, which was equivalent to dropping from atop a
telephone pole, could’ve been fatal. Number 4 Matvey Kucherov
In January of 2020, harrowing drone footage emerged out of St. Petersburg, Russia,
of a construction’s worker’s final moments. 29-year-old Matvey Kucherov
was part of the crew contracted to assist with the demolition of a derelict ice hockey stadium.
Kucherov was working atop the stadium, cutting the structures by which the roof
was attached to the wall. As one of the last anchoring points was severed by the worker,
the enormous roof suddenly started to collapse. Kucherov raced towards the nearby crane cradle,
which at the time was holding one of his co-workers and which would’ve saved his life.
Kucherov was only a few feet from the cradle but failed to reach it in time.
He went down with the building while his co-worker was hoisted to safety, narrowly
escaping the massive collapsing structure. Number 3 Hawks Nest Tunnel Disaster
The Hawks Nest Tunnel Disaster is among the worst industrial accidents in American history. In 1927,
construction began on a 3-mile tunnel which carried New River under Gauley Mountain, in West
Virginia. A dam was immediately built below Hawks Nest State Park, to divert the flow of the river
into the tunnel. During the tunnel’s construction, workers found a massive deposit of the mineral
silica, which they were then asked to mine. Many jumped at the opportunity of extra work,
considering the widespread unemployment which was characteristic of the Great Depression.
Even though the managers would wear masks and breathing equipment when visiting the site,
the workers weren’t given any protection. Roughly 3,000 men, most of whom were migrant
African-Americans, were involved in the process. Using drills and dynamite, they worked in 10 to
15-hour shifts to extract the sandstone. However, in doing so, they were exposed to silica dust and
developed silicosis, which is a debilitating lung disease. It’s unclear how many of them
ultimately succumbed to it. A Congressional hearing placed the death toll at 476, but other
reports believed it to have been closer to 1,000. Today's topic was requested by Senior Partner.
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comments section below Number 2 Kerry Ferris
In April of 2012, Kerry Ferris was driving a steamroller at a site on New Zealand’s South
Island. At the time, 52-year-old Ferris was working on a reservoir pipeline.
The 12-ton machine veered off the Maitai Valley Road and rolled down a bank. As this happened,
Ferris was thrown from the operating seat and then crushed by the steamroller. Ferris became
trapped and rescuers struggled for over an hour but couldn’t move the machine. The father-of-two
consequently sustained fatal injuries. Number 1 John Childress
On February the 26th of 2020, John Childress suffered a brutal accident at a construction
site in Johnston County, Oklahoma. The 29-year-old and his crew had been hired to move
silos at a Burnett Road property. It was reported that a wrecking ball accidentally
came loose from a crane and swung down. Childress was struck full on and sustained critical trauma.
The emergency services were called to the scene,
but in spite of first responders’ resuscitation attempts, Childress was pronounced dead.
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