Three workers fall nearly 100 feet from lift basket

The workers fell about 35 metres when a work basket they were standing in while being hoisted by a crane became separated, a spokeswoman for the yard was reported as saying by Norwegian newswire NTB.

The accident occurred around 14:00 CET on Wednesday after the workers were lifted by the crane from the quayside to take photos and control painting work on facilities, according to Norway’s Labour Inspection Authority, which carried out an inspection at the scene.

According to reports, the accident happened during inspection work being carried out on four steel jackets to be used as foundations for offshore windmills.

”The upper part of the crane has snapped so that the basket fell down.We have found signs of physical damage of some parts, but we do not know how this has occurred,” Kvaerner Verdal’s regional director Stig Magnar Lovaas told Adressa.no, adding he did not believe the basket was overloaded with people.

However, the authority has excluded the possibility that the basket itself was insecurely fastened to the crane, the report stated. See video footage from the aftermath of the incident here.

The three people were reported to be a 36-year-old Romanian man, and a Norwegian man and woman, aged 44 and 49, respectively. The woman was reportedly employed by sub-contractor Bis Industries.

They were given life-saving treatment by ambulance personnel after plunging onto the deck of a barge docked at the yard. Two were subsequently airlifted by helicopter to St Olav’s hospital in Trondheim, while the third was transported by car.

The hospital issued a statement on Wednesday evening saying the condition of all three workers was serious but stable.

The crane involved in the incident was hired from Nordic Crane, and the yard has several other cranes from the same contractor, according to a Kvaerner Verdal spokeswoman.

However, the authority said there were no grounds to take the other cranes out of operation at the yard, which employs 800 workers.

A press conference on Thursday was told that the yard would continue to lift people using cranes, but individuals would be allowed to decide for themselves.

The yard’s managing director Nina Udnes Tronstad said though it had implemented a change in routine for people lifts whereby a third party would also be present to ensure proper procedures were followed.

Kvaerner Verdal will now carry out its own internal investigation of the incident, alongside separate probes by the labour authority and police.

Source: Steve Marshall, UpStream.com