Construction crane collaspes, killing one person

[sequoias]

My comments:
How unfortunate to the person got killed by a crane. It was a freak accident happened last night.

Construction crane collapses, killing one in downtown Bellevue

Story Updated: Nov 17, 2006 at 11:16 AM PST
By KOMO Staff & News Services
Watch the video

BELLEVUE, Wash. - A 210-foot construction crane collapsed Thursday evening in downtown Bellevue, striking several buildings and killing at least one person in an apartment.

Bellevue Fire Department Lt. Bruce Kroon said the man's body was found in a fourth floor apartment of the Pinnacle Bell Center Building, which was hit by the falling crane. It appears no other people in the building were injured.

The crane was being operated at the time it fell, and the operator "rode the crane down" nearly 200 feet. He was hurt but reportedly was going to be OK, police spokesman Greg Grannis said.

Firefighters used a ladder to retrieve the operator from about 20 to 30 feet above the ground, but he was able to pull himself out of the cage, Kroon said. He was taken to nearby Overlake Hospital.

He told rescue personnel he was preparing to shut down for the night when he heard a crack and the crane went down, Kroon said.

Cause of the accident remained undetermined, but Fire Chief Mario H. Trevino said it apparently involved "a catastrophic failure" of the crane.

Kroon said the crane operator reported hearing a pop or some noise just before the crane plummeted.

The accident occurred on 108th Avenue Northeast near Northeast 4th Street, a bit north of the Seastar Restaurant, and the crane was blocking 108th Avenue Northeast.

Witnesses said the crane first hit Plaza 305, an office building, then crashed onto the Pinnacle Bell Centre, a 248-unit complex with stores on the ground floor and apartments above, and grazed the side of the Civica Office Commons. Severe structural damage was reported to all three buildings, and a restaurant, the Melting Pot, also was damaged.

The crane was working on 333 Bellevue Tower, which is an office building that has been vacant for a few years.

Dozens of residents, diners and others were evacuated as firefighters went through the other nearby buildings to check for others who might have been hurt. Traffic remained blocked overnight in the area.

"If this occurred an hour earlier, it could have been a lot worse," Bellevue mayor Grant Degginger said.

Some parts of Plaza 305 were unsafe to enter, two smaller cranes were summoned to stabilize that building, and rescue dogs that searched the building found no one else trapped, Kroon said.

"Until we get the large crane secured, we can't get in there and physically check, but we are pretty sure there's nobody left in any building that we haven't found," he said.

The crane had been anchored in a pit about five stories deep while being used in construction of the 20-story 333 Bellevue Tower. The crane's boom sheared off and fell into the street. Some of it was still on the Civica building Friday morning and the rest was lying on the Plaza 305 building and in the construction pit, Kroon said.


State Department of Labor and Industries investigators inspected the scene Thursday night.

Paul Leeper and his wife Linda Rosario were in their apartment in the Pinnacle Bell Center Building directly under the apartment where the man was killed.

Rosario said she was on her computer about three to four feet from the windows in the living room when "I heard this rumbling like thunder, getting louder...

"I covered my head. I stood frozen. I told my husband to throw me my shoes. There was glass all around."

Leeper said he heard a loud rumbling followed by a huge boom.

"I thought it was a plane," he said. "The fourth floor - it was toast. My deck is missing."

 

[MilitaryGirl83]

Whoa...... I am sorry to hear.. that's awful!

 

[LakeTahoe]

YIKES!!!!!!

Horrible to hear that!

 

[Y]

oh no !!

 

[sequoias]

A update:

Three inspectors from the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries arrived on scene late Thursday, but the cause of the accident was not immediately known.

The crane was initially reported to be owned by Ness Cranes, but a man who answered the phone at the company's Seattle headquarters Friday morning denied that.

"It's not our crane. We were operating it but it was owned by someone else," he said, refusing to give his name or the name of the company that owned it.

Company executives were in meetings and would not be commenting on the accident, he said.

According to the company's Web site, Ness Cranes "made major strides in upgrading our safety program" last year by designating safety director and offering workers incentive for meeting safety goals.

Ness Cranes was involved in one of the area's most famous crane accidents on Aug. 17, 1994, when two construction workers died in a 250-foot fall during emergency repairs at the Kingdome in Seattle. The top of the crane hit the ceiling and the bucket containing the men came loose, crashing to the floor of the stadium.

The Kingdome was demolished in March 2000.

 

[Heath]

That is terrible and my prayers go out to that family. I had thought of going into construction but after about 20 years of labor union struggles for safety on the construction worksites.

You would think big corporations would have wised up to the safety and common-sense measures but they don't and for that, I respect the AFL - CIO for trying to improve safety standards.

Here is the website link to the AFL - CIO Contruction and Trades website:

Building and Construction Trades Department, AFL-CIO

 

[RedFox]

I know someone on a co-op at Microsoft and he was in the restaurants weeks before the crane fell.

 

[Phillips]

 

[TFWFalcon]

"It's not our crane. We were operating it but it was owned by someone else," he said, refusing to give his name or the name of the company that owned it.

That is crap. I am wonder there is required licensed owner operating? which is allow lent other owner use that operator?.<---Just wondering. One question guy mention that he was going shut down before finish his job after that he hear sound crack. Look like something wrong. Maybe over limit excessive weight for lift.? cause crane's metal getting weak or minor bend?. I am not expert with that. just my theory.

 

[Seattle.guy]

latest update

I copied and pasted the latest update about the crane accident from the Seattle Times newspaper. It's sad to hear about that.

The Seattle Times: Local News: Winds may have weakened crane

By Steve Miletich and Susan Kelleher, Seattle Times staff reporters


PINNACLE BELLCENTRE Apartments: A section of the crane lies crumpled against the building in downtown Bellevue. The top unit belonged to Matt Ammon, who was killed.

High winds earlier this week may have weakened metal fasteners in the base of a giant construction crane that collapsed in Bellevue Thursday night, killing one man and severely damaging three downtown buildings.

"That's what we're focusing on," Charles Lemon, crane-safety specialist for the state Department of Labor and Industries, said Friday.

Dozens of bolts and welds failed where the base of the crane was secured, Lemon said. The bolts connected the crane to large steel beams and a concrete slab in an underground parking garage at a corner of the construction site.

Winds had dropped when the crane collapsed Thursday, but stronger winds earlier in the week might have rocked the 210-foot tower crane and placed excessive stress on the base, Lemon said.

He said investigators would also examine the crane for structural problems that could have put stress on the base.

Lemon said the crane operator was preparing to close down at the time of the accident, and the crane was not carrying a load — virtually eliminating excessive weight as the cause of the collapse. The operator was trapped in the control cab of the crane about 30 feet off the ground after a plunge of nearly 200 feet, according to fire officials. Firefighters used a ladder to reach him, and he was able to walk away from the scene.

The crane had never been inspected by state officials, said John Ecker, compliance manager for Labor and Industries.

They inspect cranes only if there is a history of problems or a specific complaint from an employee or outside party, Lemon said. They are not allowed by law to make random visits, he said.

Lemon said he wasn't aware of any problems with the crane before the collapse.
advertising
Click Here

The crane was erected Sept. 9 at the site of a 20-story office building under construction at the corner of Northeast Fourth Street and 108th Avenue Northeast in Bellevue, said Tamara Hardy, safety director for Northwest Tower Crane Service.

Hardy said her company constructed the crane tower, but that the design of the base was overseen by the general contractor, Lease Crutcher Lewis, and approved by an outside engineer.

Contractors are told to check cranes every day they are used, but they are not required to conduct a full structural evaluation, Lemon said.

Lemon said contractors are not required to check for metal fatigue after high winds, although it would be prudent.

It wasn't clear if Seattle-based Lease Crutcher Lewis or the crane's owner, Salem, Ore.-based Morrow Equipment, examined the crane after the windy weather. Neither Morrow nor Lease Crutcher Lewis responded to inquiries.

State inspectors on Friday found that three of four welds in the support beams had failed and that up to 72 bolts had been pulled from the concrete or sheared from the foundation, Lemon said.

He said a metallurgist was trying to determine if the failures resulted from weakened metal or if the crane fell over for some other reason, stripping the bolts and welds.

The National Weather Service reported sustained winds of 16 mph at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport Wednesday, with gusts of up to 41 mph. Earlier in the week, there were gusts between 26 mph and 38 mph.

Hardy, the Northwest Tower safety official, said the crane was not secured to a base made by its manufacturer. She said that was acceptable, as long as the custom base used by Lease Crutcher Lewis met standards and was approved by its engineer. It wasn't clear whether that was the case.

State officials said an engineer typically would design and approve the installation.

Workplace safety rules require operators to routinely inspect tower cranes according to "industry standards."

Although Lemon said those standards require an inspection every day a crane is used, the guidelines are less exact. For example, they state that cranes in "heavy service" shall be inspected "daily to weekly," while those in light service shall be checked monthly. More thorough annual inspections are required for all cranes.

Only the periodic inspections require record-keeping. Labor and Industries checks to see whether contractors comply with the standards only when there is a reported problem.

Steven Pfeiffer, engineering manager for Seattle's Department of Planning and Development, said local building inspectors focus on a final structure, not how it gets erected.

Because cranes are not part of the finished building, the bases on which they're built fall outside the routine inspections. For example, a concrete platform on which a tower crane sits would not be inspected unless the platform was going to become part of the final building.

"We deliberately stay out of that because we don't have the resources to stay on top of that kind of thing," Pfeiffer said, explaining that government monitoring of the "means and methods" of construction would require an almost constant presence on construction sites.

Instead, the operator is responsible for the safe operation and construction of a crane, according to L&I.

On Friday, L&I issued an advisory to operators, urging them to search their cranes for structural problems and reminding them of their responsibility to inspect cranes according to the industry standards.

Lease Crutcher Lewis has been cited by L&I for three serious workplace safety violations in Seattle and Bellevue since 2003. Ness Cranes, whose employee was operating the crane when it collapsed Thursday, was cited once in 2005, according to L&I records. Details of those incidents were not immediately available. Northwest Tower Crane Service, based in Tukwila, has been cited for six serious safety violations in Bellevue and Seattle since 2002.

It was not clear if any of the past violations against each company occurred at the site of Thursday's accident.

Times staff reporter Peyton Whitely contributed to this story.

 

[sequoias]

Wow it's interesting about the details because I like to know what exactly went wrong, it's almost like watching CSI. The winds doesn't sound strong enough to weaken the crane. It might have been the safety standards that don't meet or exeed the regulations. It said acceptable, that's not enough.

We'll see more from the continuing investigation.

 

[Heath]

My strong gut tells me that they hired illegal border jumpers and those excuses they are telling the media is total b.s. They don't want people knowing they hired illegal border jumpers.

 

[TFWFalcon]

My strong gut tells me that they hired illegal border jumpers and those excuses they are telling the media is total b.s. They don't want people knowing they hired illegal border jumpers.

I don't think so hire illegal border jumper use operator crane. As I know there is required take test pass for license operator crane.

 

[TFWFalcon]

Dozens of bolts and welds failed where the base of the crane was secured, Lemon said. The bolts connected the crane to large steel beams and a concrete slab in an underground parking garage at a corner of the construction site.

Winds had dropped when the crane collapsed Thursday, but stronger winds earlier in the week might have rocked the 210-foot tower crane and placed excessive stress on the base, Lemon said.

My question is wondering that bolts and nuts does have pins to locked?. Without pins the bolts cause nuts fell or loosen out?.

PS I agree with Seqouis. He said part of drama CSI for figure it out what is cause crashed crane.

 

[sequoias]

^^I read somewhere that they said the foundation was too small and the bolts/fasteners wasn't secured enough and didn't need a inspection. Also, they don't inspect cranes AFTER major windstorms, the law requires to inspect cranes for defects, faults, etc once a week for heavy duty related jobs and once a month for light duty jobs. That sounds pretty fishy to me. Tough luck for them getting a lawsuit for killing a person down there.

 

[sequoias]

So, that explains. Not a good idea there.

Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Bellevue crane sat on base with "very unusual design"
By Steve Miletich, Amy Martinez and Ashley Bach
Seattle Times staff reporters

The construction crane that toppled in downtown Bellevue on Thursday sat on a base with a "very unusual design," according to an official with a Tukwila company that erected the crane for the general contractor.

It was the first time in 13 years in business that Northwest Tower Crane Service has installed a crane on steel beams instead of a concrete foundation that is normally used, said Tamara Hardy, Northwest's safety director.

State investigators are studying the construction of the custom-made base, which held a 210-foot tower crane that collapsed, killing one man and damaging three buildings.

As the investigation continued Monday, Bellevue city officials said the developer of the Tower 333 building, the site of the accident, could restart construction within two weeks.

But the city still must assess damage to the 20-story office project, said Bellevue's deputy director of development services, Michael Brennan. The state Department of Labor and Industries also needs to approve restarting construction.

Regarding the design of the crane that collapsed, Hardy said the most common method of securing cranes is to attach them to bolts buried in a concrete foundation.

"That's about the only way we ever do it," she said, noting that Northwest Tower Crane Service has installed 150 to 250 cranes a year over the past five years — and 300 so far this year.

This crane was secured to four steel beams, configured in an H-pattern, in the parking garage of an office building under construction.

Hardy said the general contractor, Seattle-based Lease Crutcher Lewis, designed the base, with the approval of an outside engineering firm.

Lease Crutcher Lewis President Bill Lewis could not be reached for comment on Monday.

The company designed the crane base on the site of an existing foundation, after a previous developer was unable to continue an earlier project. It was not clear if the previous work forced Lease Crutcher Lewis to come up with a custom design.

Most cranes are connected to a base provided by the crane's manufacturer, Hardy said.

During meetings that preceded construction, Northwest Tower Crane Service's president, David Weber, asked the engineer for Lease Crutcher Lewis for approval of the design, Hardy said.

Dozens of bolts and welds ripped or sheared from the base when the crane collapsed Thursday evening, possibly weakened by high winds last week, a state official said.

Over the next week, state inspectors will visit the 13 other construction sites in Bellevue that have tower cranes, said Elaine Fischer, spokeswoman for the state Department of Labor and Industries. The department wants to make sure contractors are complying with a statewide advisory Friday to inspect all cranes.

Fischer said the department will release no more information on the accident investigation until it is complete, which could take up to six months.

Investigators have interviewed the operator of the crane, Warren Taylor Yeakey, of Tacoma. Ness Crane Services, which employed Yeakey, gave him a drug test after the accident. Fischer said state inspectors would not release the results of the test.

Yeakey, 34, has been convicted of four drug-related crimes in years past. Most recently, in 2000, he pleaded guilty to methamphetamine possession and was sentenced to four months in jail.

Yeakey and his family have declined comment.

With a weekend full of holiday events approaching, downtown Bellevue is slowly returning to normal.

On Monday morning, 108th Avenue Northeast partially reopened, with one northbound lane. The road won't fully open for at least a day or two, after crews clean up the debris around Plaza 305, the most heavily damaged building, city spokesman Tim Waters said.

By Monday afternoon, all of the fallen crane had been cut into pieces and trucked away.

At Tower 333, "the site is being inspected for damage by structural and geotechnical consultants, and our contractor will proceed when the safety of the site, and of the community, can be assured," George Lancaster, vice president of communications for The Texas-based Hines development company, wrote in an e-mail. "While they are grieving now, the Tower 333 team is poised to move forward at the appropriate time."

Damage assessments also were being done at surrounding buildings. BRE Properties, the San Francisco-based owner of the apartment complex where a resident was killed, hoped to have an estimate by today or Wednesday, said Tom Mierzwinski, vice president of corporate communications.

Two units at Pinnacle BellCentre had structural damage, Mierzwinski said, and four units had other damage that prevented them from being occupied. Residents are being put up in local hotels and apartment complexes at BRE's expense, he said. Pinnacle BellCentre has 248 units in all.

Plaza 305 remained uninhabitable Monday after nearly a quarter of it was sheared off in the accident. The three-story building housed Pacific Continental Bank, AppleOne Employment and Intelligent Results, a software company.

Pacific Continental has moved its nine-member Bellevue staff to downtown Seattle. AppleOne, a national staffing agency, is looking for new space in Bellevue, said its Los Angeles real estate broker, David Wash.

"We're waiting to hear from the ownership as to how much damage there is, how long it will take to rebuild, and if, in fact, they'll rebuild," Wash said.

Jeff Foushee, an owner of the building, could not be reached Monday. Efforts to reach Intelligent Results also were unsuccessful.

At Civica Office Commons, offices were damaged at six businesses, but all were back at work Monday, said Michael Bernstein, executive vice president at Brickman Associates, Civica's New York-based owner.