Home Mishaps Damaged Cruddas Park Liebherr crane being dismantled after worker injured
Mishaps

Damaged Cruddas Park Liebherr crane being dismantled after worker injured

October 27, 2014

The huge crane at Cruddas Park flats broke down on Saturday lunchtime and is now being taken down using other cranes.

Engineers have begun the painstaking work of dismantling a damaged crane which left a man injured when it broke down.

On Saturday a man was taken to hospital with facial injuries after the huge machine, which had been working on the 20-storey high Cruddas Park flats broke down with an almighty bang.

Paramedics wrapped the man’s head and face in a bandage and examined him before an ambulance took him to the city’s Royal Victoria Infirmary.

But his injuries were subsequently deemed to be only minor and Northumbria Policesaid the man was “fit and well to go back to work.”

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The scene of the accident with the crane at Cruddas Park

 

An investigation into exactly what happened is underway while contractors Wates Living Space, working on behalf of Your Homes Newcastle, could on Thursday be seen dismantling the stricken crane.

Police said on Saturday the crane had “collapsed” but it is understood it was not being used at the time.

“We are in the process of completing the controlled dismantle of the crane at Cruddas Park,” a spokesman for Wates Living Space said.

“As is standard operation, additional equipment has arrived on site to enable us to do this and we are working with our crane supplier to ensure that the process is carried out as safely and efficiently as possible.

“A detailed investigation into the causes of the machine’s malfunction will then progress and we will use the learnings to inform our site safety procedures going forward. In the meantime, construction work will continue as planned using a different crane.”

At the time of the incident eye witness Joel Bostock, 41, who lives nearby, said: “The crane was turning around when I think a cable came loose and whiplashed one of the workers.

“St Michael’s Roman Catholic Primary School’s entrance is near there and if it happened on a school day, who knows what could have happened.”

Anthony Chance, 49, of Fenham, Newcastle, who was working nearby, said: “The gib was half way down when it fell.”

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The scene of the accident with the crane at Cruddas Park

Another man said: “It was a massive bang. It is a monster of a machine and could have caused a serious injury.”

David Langhorne, director of property services at Your Homes Newcastle said: “We are continuing our close correspondence with Wates and are satisfied with the current site operations which will enable Wates and its supplier to complete their investigation as to the factors behind the incident that took place on Saturday.

“Works to the tower block are proceeding as planned.”