State Railway Demands Answers for Red Line Crane Tumble

[Jacob Maslow]

The State Railway of Thailand is demanding answers from the Italian-Thai Development Plc (ITD) over another crane accident on Monday. This is not the first time ITD, contractor for the Red Line electric train route, has had one of its cranes topple over. Monday’s accident caused injuries and damage.

The accident took place at an ITD construction site near the Don Muang train station in Bangkok. Two cars were damaged and one person was hurt in the incident. Recently, there have been several incidents of cranes falling down.

The State Railway of Thailand (SRT) will hold a meeting with ITD to find a solution to the problem. ITD admits that the most recent accident was caused by a worker’s error. If a solution is not found, charges may be filed against ITD.

Each time one of these incidents has occurred, meetings have been held to discuss the matter with the contractors. The SRT warned ITD that if another incident like this took place again, they would be forced to find another contractor.

As of right now, ITD takes full responsibility for the injury and damage that took place. The injured victim, Mr. Thanuphong, was laying in the back seat of his vehicle waiting for his relatives when the crane hit his car. He was trapped in the vehicle with his legs hanging out of a broken window.

-- 2015-05-06

[Lee4Life]

A crane coming down is almost always operator error, unless the earth or concrete underneath the stabilizers gave way...and even then you could say that the operator should have been paying more attention. The most common errors are not extending the stabilizers completely and/or extending the booms too far for the amount of weight on them. Many operators think they will have time to react once things start going South...but that's not always the case.

So what solution are they going to come up with? Are there proper education and training courses in place? Do the crane operators feel they have the authority not to do something that a foreman or boss tells them to do if they deem it dangerous? Is the company involved trying to cut costs by using lower capacity cranes than are actually needed?

Lots of questions involved in this one!

[Srikcir]

Invoke Article 44 to eliminate gravity.

[ChrisY1]

A crane coming down is almost always operator error, unless the earth or concrete underneath the stabilizers gave way...and even then you could say that the operator should have been paying more attention. The most common errors are not extending the stabilizers completely and/or extending the booms too far for the amount of weight on them. Many operators think they will have time to react once things start going South...but that's not always the case.

So what solution are they going to come up with? Are there proper education and training courses in place? Do the crane operators feel they have the authority not to do something that a foreman or boss tells them to do if they deem it dangerous? Is the company involved trying to cut costs by using lower capacity cranes than are actually needed?

Lots of questions involved in this one!

They also overide the sensors and overload alarms.......most of these cranes that I've seen, have no working load cell.....it's also extremely difficult to correct a hydraulic crane as there's no free-fall........once they start to go, it's all over

[JAG]

Am I alone in seeing the irony in SRT (given their recent record) threatening to boot a contractor off a site because of accidents?

[NongKhaiKid]

Am I alone in seeing the irony in SRT (given their recent record) threatening to boot a contractor off a site because of accidents?

and they know how much evil spirits are involved or is that only for their accidents ?

[rametindallas]

I've trained on/operated a very heavy crane a few times so I could be used, if necessary, as a 'relief' operator (never was).

I know exactly why that crane failed. It failed because of a 'loose nut' between the controls and the seat;; meaning the operator (the 'loose nut') didn't pay close attention to all the indicators on the crane that let him know if his load was too heavy for how extended he was. All cranes have graphs and diagrams to show safe operating limits. At the very least, his ass should have felt the imbalance in his load. Carelessness/inattentiveness are the cause (or maybe he was just incompetent and got his position through 'connections').

[BSJ]

It is amazing the number of people in LOS operating heavy equipment and vehicles without proper training. OK, it's a 3rd world country but the equipment comes from the the 1st world.

[ExPratt]

Steel Plates under the out riggers and a proper lift analysis. It really isn't rocket science it just needs enforcing and the crane drivers trained and site staff trained

[ExPratt]

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I've trained on/operated a very heavy crane a few times so I could be used, if necessary, as a 'relief' operator (never was).

I know exactly why that crane failed. It failed because of a 'loose nut' between the controls and the seat;; meaning the operator (the 'loose nut') didn't pay close attention to all the indicators on the crane that let him know if his load was too heavy for how extended he was. All cranes have graphs and diagrams to show safe operating limits. At the very least, his ass should have felt the imbalance in his load. Carelessness/inattentiveness are the cause (or maybe he was just incompetent and got his position through 'connections').

crane.jpg

They tend to just ignore the load chart if it means getting a heavier and more expensive crane