Cranes fall on houses in Netherlands, 1 man rescued
MIKE CORDER, Associated Press

AMSTERDAM (AP) — Rescuers pulled a survivor from under the wreckage of apartments and shops flattened on Monday shortly after two cranes being used in the restoration of a bridge in a central Dutch city toppled onto a row of buildings, a fire department spokesman said.

One man had been pulled alive from the rubble in Alphen aan den Rijn, and rescuers including sniffer dogs would work deep into the night combing the scene for any other victims who might have been trapped, said Ton Koot, a spokesman for the local fire department.

"We hope that the number of victims stays at this one man who was taken to hospital with hip problems," Koot said in a telephone interview.

Earlier, Koot said that initial reports of between seven and 20 injured victims were based on estimates of the number of people who might have been in the houses when the cranes slammed into them.

"We are stabilizing the situation so rescue workers can go in," Koot said. Two teams usually deployed to overseas disasters such as earthquakes were at the scene with five specially trained sniffer dogs.

Dramatic amateur video aired by national broadcaster NOS showed the towering orange cranes on a pontoon on the Rijn river carrying a large section of the bridge, when they begin to sway and then topple onto houses, slamming through the buildings and sending a cloud of dust into the air. The bridge section they had been carrying also appeared to land on the buildings.

"You see the cloud of dust rise — that is a terrible image and you think, 'Who is under there?' You can't believe what you see," witness Dick van Smirren told NOS.

The local municipality urged people to stay away from the scene to allow rescuers to carry out their work.

The Dutch Safety Board, which investigates serious accidents, said it was sending a team to the scene.


-- (c) Associated Press 2015-08-04

Those pesky Dutch are at it again !! .................

This should be amusing in an upside down way.

if this happened in Thailand, there would be 6 pages of rants by now, and ten more tomorrow.

Not a whisper or whimper when it is an accident in Farang-atopia.

When a white person has an unfortunate and unforeseen outcome, it is called "an accident."

When a brown person has the identical scenario, it is evidence that Satan Walks the Earth.

Amazing Farang-ness.

When i first saw the picture in 'Der Spiegel' i thought, Thailand again, but the houses looked too substantial and clean. Whatever, unlike Thailand this will have serious consequences and rightly so.

This should be amusing in an upside down way.

if this happened in Thailand, there would be 6 pages of rants by now, and ten more tomorrow.

Not a whisper or whimper when it is an accident in Farang-atopia.

When a white person has an unfortunate and unforeseen outcome, it is called "an accident."

When a brown person has the identical scenario, it is evidence that Satan Walks the Earth.

Amazing Farang-ness.

Maybe there is in European news media,do you really think it is only Thailand that gets slated on the internet,or have you forgotten this is a site mainly dedicated to what goes on in Thailand and surprise,surprise that is why there are so many comments about Thailand.Even I was able to work that one out.

This should be amusing in an upside down way.

if this happened in Thailand, there would be 6 pages of rants by now, and ten more tomorrow.

Not a whisper or whimper when it is an accident in Farang-atopia.

When a white person has an unfortunate and unforeseen outcome, it is called "an accident."

When a brown person has the identical scenario, it is evidence that Satan Walks the Earth.

Amazing Farang-ness.

Maybe there is in European news media,do you really think it is only Thailand that gets slated on the internet,or have you forgotten this is a site mainly dedicated to what goes on in Thailand and surprise,surprise that is why there are so many comments about Thailand.Even I was able to work that one out.

Case in point .. perfect reply.

For pictures and videos see here (news in Dutch, but should speak for itself).

Update: No dead or wounded. Previously reported leg/hip condition of rescued man was pre-existing.

http://www.nu.nl/binnenland/4100408/geen-gewonden-bij-kraanongeluk-alphen.html

An off-topic post of a commercial nature has been removed.

They were lifting the bridge section from a barge. Both cranes were on the one side of the barge. The barge itself doesn't look big enough to compensate for this the barge master is the one who is to blame. The Dutch lead the world in heavy lifting especially on water so something serious has gone wrong here. just glad nobody was killed or injured. It is going to turn out to be a very, very expensive lift

They were lifting the bridge section from a barge. Both cranes were on the one side of the barge. The barge itself doesn't look big enough to compensate for this the barge master is the one who is to blame. The Dutch lead the world in heavy lifting especially on water so something serious has gone wrong here. just glad nobody was killed or injured. It is going to turn out to be a very, very expensive lift

That is him ruined, even if he had insurance the insurance will want at least some of the money back for gross negligence.

This should be amusing in an upside down way.

if this happened in Thailand, there would be 6 pages of rants by now, and ten more tomorrow.

Not a whisper or whimper when it is an accident in Farang-atopia.

When a white person has an unfortunate and unforeseen outcome, it is called "an accident."

When a brown person has the identical scenario, it is evidence that Satan Walks the Earth.

Amazing Farang-ness.

Indeed bamboo scaffolding tends to hurt less than a crane if it comes down on top of your head. Regulation safety floppy hats and flip-flops not withstanding.

That is him ruined, even if he had insurance the insurance will want at least some of the money back for gross negligence.

Ruined shmuined. He'll be drinking in a bar on a beach in Thailand in a week....telling everyone who will listen just how bad Thai crane drivers are.

Having worked on several heavy lifting barges over the years this doesn't seem to be a dedicated lifting barge. For a start it looks far too narrow and doesn't look like it has the draft to cope with such a lift. As said someone is in for a lot of stick in the coming days and weeks

An off topic obfuscation post has been removed as well as a troll post.

Good to see epic construction SNAFUs aren't limited to SEA. Someone obviously is new at the job or trying to cut corners to make a little more cash.

Total dumb ass move, would love to know of the legal outcomes.

Having worked on several heavy lifting barges over the years this doesn't seem to be a dedicated lifting barge. For a start it looks far too narrow and doesn't look like it has the draft to cope with such a lift. As said someone is in for a lot of stick in the coming days and weeks

Present reports say it was only indirectly a problem with the barge, apparently the crane was not attached to the barge properly.

But we'll have to wait and see what comes of the enquiries.

In the mean time the contractor is paying the victims for damages, prelimenary of course. But it does look like the parties involved have proper insurance, and thoughts 'that's the end for the construction company' are premature at best.