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As consultation document details on the tower crane register were released in July 2009 another tragic work accident involving a loading crane that seriously injured a worker in Southampton further emphasised the need for regulation of these potentially fatal constructions.
The Southampton accident at work occurred when the crane, a twin boom rig with the cab suspended on rails, toppled onto a docked ship while containers were being loaded onto it. The dock employee received serious, life-threatening, crush injuries to his legs and was airlifted to hospital after emergency rescue services took over two hours to free him from the crane's cab.
Health and safety officials were soon on the scene to begin an investigation into the work accident, but local press were already questioning how the incident could have occurred when only 18 months earlier a similar crane had collapsed at the docks. No-one had been injured in the previous accident.
Details regarding the tower crane register were reported in Building online outlining options for key aspects of the scheme only two days after the 2009 accident.
One of the main concerns behind the setting up of the register was cost – costs involved in a tower crane only register were suggested to be around £450,000 over ten years, but when including self-erected cranes the projected costs could rise to over £3 million. These costs could prohibit the benefit of mobile cranes in the inclusion in the register, even though some industry experts had made strong calls for their addition.
Key proposals for the register included the levying of a crane registration fee to cover administration costs. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE)would then require crane operators to notify them of various details that would make investigating the safety record of the crane and its operators more straightforward in the event of an accident. The key information required would be; name and address of crane owners, site address, identifying details of the crane, date of thorough examination of the crane, details of the employer for whom the examination was made, and whether any safety defects that posed a risk to the safety of workers were detected.
Of course, these provisions for crane identification will be too late for the Southampton dock worker, but as a result of the publicity and the immediate HSE investigation it was hoped that any breaches in safety regulations would be identified and the worker and his family would be compensated for their suffering.
Claiming compensation after a work accident
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