Comments on: Doh! Falling Crane Hits Moving Car, Misses Driver

by: Scraper

Sun, 08 Jul 2007 18:19:52 +0000

I worked in the crane industry for over 10 years. I investigated many different crane accidents. There can be many different causes of accidents, but the majority are operator error. Newer cranes come with lots of safety features to prevent accidents, but if they are ignored or misused, they don’t do any good.

by: Leslie Vincent

Tue, 03 Jul 2007 23:47:12 +0000

Not every flashback to the 70’s involves chemicals - mine include watching a huge crane being used to build a new library at my college topple over into the engineering building that I’d just left. Thankfully no one was significantly hurt.

by: Trey

Tue, 03 Jul 2007 23:10:35 +0000

Fred, I completely agree with you (although Dean Kamen has invented a wheelchair that climbs stairs). That reminds me of Make magazine #5’s article about Eric Paulos. His big project seems to be a garbage can with a video projector that displays the last item thrown away. He’s obviously a very smart man but is that the best use of anyone’s time?

by: Fred

Tue, 03 Jul 2007 21:18:16 +0000

You would think in this modern age it would be possible to build cranes with an active kinesthetic sense. Instead, we get the Segway, a comparable engineering task but, essentially a toy.

by: John

Tue, 03 Jul 2007 20:54:37 +0000

good thing the driver didn’t have any kids or passengers in the back seat. As for what causes such accidents, not being a crane operator, I’m just guessing that it’s the lack of proper counter weight and/or over extension. Mix in some wind and I bet I’m in the ballpark. As long as the center of gravity is over the base of the crane, things like this shouldn’t happen, or so my high school physics memories tell me.