Don't often see this - Crane topples in city centre

[Suezy]

The Department of Labour is investigating a crane crash in Christchurch's central city.

Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority operations general manager Warwick Isaacs said the crane was removing exterior precast panels from a Hereford St demolition site when it toppled forward between two buildings at about 3.30pm yesterday afternoon.

Isaacs said there were seven workers on site at the time of the crash, but nobody was injured.

The Department of Labour was investigating the incident, he said.

Naylor Love Construction, which was operating the crane at the time of the crash, said it was conducting its own investigation to determine the cause of the crash.

Naylor Love's Canterbury regional manager, Pete Lockhart, said the company would release more information about the incident tomorro

- © Fairfax NZ News

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[TokWW]

Just three counterweights on that lightweight machine, surprised there are not more on the back of it being a mobile tracked crane and it has quite a long boom on it for that configuration.  It does not look like it has suffered any damage surprisingly.

[Suezy]

Don't even know which building it was going to get - as so many are coming down bit hard to keep track of now.

[Suezy]

Todays paper further report on above.

Crane crash 'like a quake'
Last updated 05:00 12/03/2012

Damon Robinson GOING NOWHERE: The tipped-over crane. Tim Ward CRUSHED: The falling crane sent a massive block of concrete onto a nearby car.
The Labour Department is investigating a crane crash in Christchurch's red zone that sent a "massive" block of concrete into a nearby vehicle.

The crane was removing exterior precast panels at a Hereford St demolition site on Saturday afternoon when it fell forward, toppling between two buildings and causing a slab of concrete to hit the ground.

The incident damaged a car and startled shoppers at the nearby Re:Start container mall.

Witness Mark McLaren said when the massive slab of concrete hit the ground, the ground shook so much that people thought there had been another earthquake.

"We ran up to the fence and asked if anyone was hurt and the guys were fine, just shaken up. The concrete panel was massive and there was a car underneath.

"If anyone was in it they would have been goners."

The demolition site was being managed by Naylor Love Construction.

Naylor Love Canterbury regional manager Pete Lockhart said it was investigating the accident. "We don't know what's fully happened, so we have to have a look and see," he said.

The company had informed the Labour Department and the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (Cera).

Lockhart said the company would be able to release more information today.

Cera operations general manager Warwick Isaacs said seven workers were on site at the time of the crash, but no-one was injured.

Copied from The Press.