hot tub -v- 60 tonne crane

[graham]

hot tub - 1

60 tonne crane - nil

[Lurch]

On Sun, 02 Oct 2005 18:17:13 GMT, [e-mail] scrawled:

down well when the insurance company get the report back.

[Lurch]

On Sun, 02 Oct 2005 20:54:46 +0000, Andy Champ scrawled:

Looks like he was close to a wall, whether the crane toppled and broke the stabiliser and pulled the wagon closer to the wall though?

Well, I'd imagine it'll be empty now.

[Dr Wu]

To decide who carries the can for this one, the question is- Who was responsible for the lifting plan? The lifting plan outlines the the load to be carrried, the radius, the type of crane required and in my experience the way the load from the outriggers (stabilisers) is supported.The plan is an important document that must exist in the eyes of the Health and Safety Executive before a lift is undertaken. For some time now crane hire companies will only hire to a party that has a qualified 'Appointed Person' capable of making out a lifting plan. If no AP is available then the crane company will carry out a 'Contract Lift' (at a higher price) and accept responsibility for ensuring the correct size crane is used for the given load at whatever radius is required. This sounds quite good for the hirer without an AP, but at the end of the day the hirer is usually responsible for ensuring that the ground has been checked to ensure it has the neccessary bearing capacity for the outrigger load. Often, ground conditions are the reason why a crane tips over.

[Andy Champ]

No-one would be daft enough to put out the non-working stabiliser, but not the working one. I'd guess it went down a hole.

Perhaps they should have left it empty?

Andy

[mrcheerful]

I had a caravan lifted over my house, the guys with the crane put railway sleeper type bits of wood to spread the load, are they in the picture?

Looks to me like incompetent crane operator.

mrcheerful

[Dave Liquorice]

or has bent/broken it's a long way into the ground...

I suspect no or to small blocks/boards to spread the load over ground softer than expected.

[Dr Wu]

[Chip C]

Well, the reports mention gas main damage, so I'd guess it was the sunken stabiliser that did that. How deep are gas mains thereabouts?

Chip C

[DJC]

A hole with a gas main in it?

[PeTe33]

Blimey, it would be cheaper to go abroad than take your caravan out for a jolly!

[Colin Wilson]

I`d hate to be the hot-tub company right about now, if they were the ones who arranged delivery. It could be a little expensive, considering the evacuation of the other residents, hire of an even bigger crane, gas main repairs etc...

[Matt]

It's what insurance is for :-)

[Frank Erskine]

Not only gas - there was damage to water mains, lamppost, telephone cables... :-)

[Lurch]

On Mon, 03 Oct 2005 22:59:26 +0100, Matt scrawled:

Which is invaslid if the operator didn't extend the stabilisers correctly and\or overloaded the jib.

[dennis]

What would be the point of liability insurance if it didn't cover mistakes? It would be like motor insurance where they don't pay if you make an error.

I doubt if it were overloaded, most hot tubs are ~250-350kg which isn't a lot (assuming they are empty).

I expect that the ground has been weakened by a burst pipe/mine working and the stabiliser has fell through.

This /may/ have been avoided if he had used full size sleepers under the feet but it shouldn't need it. It probably better that the crane fell in than leaving it and having a person fall through later.

[mrcheerful]

Actually I left the caravan permanently there as a Wendy house, but it would be cheaper to have it craned in/out once a year than to pay for somewhere to store it !!!

mrcheerful

[SimonJ]

The legally required public liability insurance must cover all eventualities, opperator error included, if the crane co has extra cover to protect their assets, over and above the legal requirement, it is possible that thhis cover will contain a clause which excludes opperator error.

It depends on the reach required, you need a pretty big crane to swing even a fairly light load over the top of a house.

If you look very carefully at the picture on the BBC site, you can see that the stabiliser on the left side of the crane has not been extended, if you look just below the n/s rear light cluster, you can see the shiny bit on the end of the hydraulic ram which is the stabliser leg, compare this to the left side where the leg is about 10 feet away from the light unit.

Also if you look carefully in that picture, there is some bloody loony standing in the window, direcly under the fallen jib! Obviously doesn't value his life too highly!

[graham]

When did you change your name by deed poll to Wendy?

(:-)

Graham

[Matt]

If you look at the right hand side hydraulic ram it wasn't extended enough to reach the ground with the crane on the level.

Does anyone know the crane operating company?