INCIDENT REPORT

September, 2018 Box Hill, Melbourne, Australia

Project Cranes The Outcome Key Learnings

Apartment Building Construction

Raimondi Tower Crane • One fatality • Two injured • Ensure workers are not subjected to loads travelling or being suspended overhead • Ensure crane assembly is completed in full and safe for operation • Cease operations and report any unsafe work conditions

A construction company and crane hire company have been charged over the death of a 48-year old man who was crushed by a concrete-laden kibble that fell from a crane in September 2018. Two other men in their late 20s were also injured in the terrible incident, which was attended by forty firefighters and specialist urban search and rescue teams. The three men were working in a residential site pit for a new 12 storey apartment building in Box Hill, Melbourne, when the incident occurred. A Raimondi tower crane was transporting a 1.5 cubic metre skip of concrete overhead when it malfunctioned, with the bucket falling into the pit below. Two of the men were struck by the kibble and submerged in the wet concrete. Workers tried frantically to free the men

using shovels and planks of wood to stand on before emergency services arrived. Tragically, one of the men died at the scene. The second man was rescued from the pit and transported to Royal Melbourne Hospital in a critical condition with injuries to his head, chest, and abdomen. A third man sustained two broken arms and was taken to the local Box Hill Hospital. WorkSafe investigators suspected the incident was caused due to the failure of the hoist rope termination assembly, which connects the hoist rope to the jib. After investigations were conducted, it was determined that a missing locking pin on the hoist rope termination point was the specific cause. The crane hire company was instructed to inspect the hoist rope termination assembly on more than 60 of their cranes, with WorkSafe engaging specialist technicians to verify the safety checks before the cranes returned to service. The crane company was further charged with three offences under the Occupational Health and Safety Act, including failure to ensure a split pin was safely inserted in the hoist rope and failure to ensure the crane was supplied and installed in a manner where its use would be safe and without risks. The construction company was charged with two offences under the same Act for failure to provide a system of work that ensured employees did not work under suspended loads and failure to provide documented information, instruction or supervision to ensure workers followed a safe system of work.

Paul Fowler, WorkSafe Acting Executive Director of Health and Safety, stressed that “all construction companies on sites with cranes need to consider how loads could be moved without putting workers at risk”.

Key learnings from this incident

Construction companies have a duty to ensure loads do not travel over or are suspended above workers.

Crane companies have a duty to ensure their cranes are in good working order and safe for operation.

Workers should communicate any concerns about unsafe work environments, ceasing work until the issues have been rectified.