Box Hill crane accident: Concrete traps workers in Melbourne

THE mother of a man killed on a Box Hill construction site when more than a tonne of wet concrete fell from a crane on Thursday is “extremely traumatised”.

THE mother of a man killed on a Box Hill construction site when more than a tonne of wet concrete fell from a crane on Thursday is “extremely traumatised”.

The man, in his 40s, was working in a pit as a general labourer when the crane dropped a load of concrete on him and two other workers.

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A 28-year-old Caroline Springs man remains in a critical condition at the Royal Melbourne Hospital while a 27-year-old Southbank man suffered minor injuries.

The workers’ union claims a mechanical fault caused the tragedy, with the crane owned by the same company involved in the Richmond crane debacle in July — Clark Cranes.

Emergency services transport a critically injured worker to hospital. Picture: David Caird

CFMEU occupational health and safety manager Dr Gerry Ayers said the man’s death had devastated his family and co-workers.

“He has a mother who is extremely traumatised, obviously, she’s lost her son,” he said.

“This fatality now brings the number of fatalities we’ve had in this industry since January to seven so that just has to stop, we can’t continue the way we are.

“We all have to take a deep breath, slow down and really review how we’re doing the work and how we carry working on these sites because it’s just not good enough.”

Dr Ayers said a CFMEU crane expert had visited the Box Hill site and “he saw that the cable had snapped” on the crane involved.

“The cable goes through a sheave and that’s attached to the hook and that obviously takes the loads up and down. That apparently has snapped, causing the load to fall.”

It’s understood the three workers — a general labourer, an excavator driver and a dogger who directs a crane load — were putting down pad footing in the pit to build a foundation when the crane load fell.

A hammerhead crane, such as the one involved in the incident on Thursday, can carry between 1.5 and 6 tonnes of concrete.

Dr Ayers said regulations state that loads should not be lifted or suspended over people “as far as practicable”.

“So what we would be saying is, tell me why it’s not practicable not to do that?” he said.

Emergency services on the scene. Picture: Ryan Tennison

The incident happened at a Box Hill construction site. Picture: Ryan Tennison

The scene of the accident. Picture: Channel 7/Twitter

“We have loads suspended over the public, so there’s an issue for us as an industry and a union to have grave concerns about how this industry operates and how people are setting up their cranes.”

Dr Ayers said “it’s probably more common than not” for work sites to suspend loads overhead but “it shouldn’t be accepted” and called on sites to employ proper lifting plans.

Emergency services are at the scene. Picture: Ryan Tennison

“Unfortunately there’s so much push to get these jobs done, industry and those people in control of the workplace tend to forget these things,” he said.

“It’s time management, profit, all of those things.”

The CFMEU understands that up to 100 Clark Cranes are in use across the state, and called on the company to conduct a full mechanical audit and service of its machines before work was continued.

Dr Ayers claimed Clark Cranes had a history of mechanical issues, including the incident at Richmond where a damaged machine hung precariously over residents’ homes and forced them to be evacuated.

Cranes can be issued with green “roadworthy” stickers under a voluntary initiative by the Crane Industry Council of Australia.

“Clark Cranes is one of the few companies who won’t support that process,” Dr Ayers claimed.

WorkSafe Victoria inspectors are on site at Box Hill.

A representative of Clark Cranes said the company did not have a comment.