Okla. crane fall kills man watching construction
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - July 24, 2008 The man's 78-year-old wife, who was also in the car, was
transported to a hospital in good condition, ambulance officials
said.
A group of people had gathered in southwest Oklahoma City to
watch the installation of the steeple when the crane collapsed in
the parking lot, said Deputy Fire Chief Cecil Clay.
The state medical examiner's office identified the victim as
Winfred Stafford of Oklahoma City. Grace Assembly of God Pastor Joe
Hancock said he and his wife were longtime church members.
"Just great people," he said. "It's just a huge loss."
Hancock said he was taking photos from the back of the church
when he realized something had gone wrong. The crane started to tip
when the steeple was about 10 feet off the ground, he said.
Caleb Fellenstein, the church's youth minister, said the crane
started to lower the steeple just before the accident.
"And then it just quickened," he said. "The whole boom and
the crane just flipped over. It was like a movie. It was like
something unreal.
"I was just standing there in disbelief and panic."
The boom of the portable crane came to rest on the car, the
smashed white steeple still attached.
The operator of the crane was not injured.
The woman was in the back seat of the car and the man was in the
front passenger seat, said Lara O'Leary, spokeswoman for the
Emergency Medical Services Authority, which operates emergency
transport for the area.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the state
Labor Department and the owner of the crane, Barnhart Crane and
Rigging Co., were to investigate.
Jeff Latture, Barnhart senior vice president, said it had been
years since the company had an accident.
"We do about 10,000 jobs a year without incident," he said.
"We are very upset about this and certainly are concerned about
families involved."
Latture said the cause of the accident will likely be a
structural failure of the 90-ton crane, some kind of a problem with
the ground it was sitting on, or operator error.
"It was at the beginning of a very simple lift, which is
somewhat troubling to us and not far into the lift when the crane
went over," he said.
Clay, the fire official, said he saw no obvious equipment
failure or problems with the ground the crane was on.
Latture said about 150 feet of the telescoping boom was deployed
at the time of the accident.
There have been several deadly crane accidents around the
country this year, including one in Houston last week that killed
four workers and injured seven others. Crane-related deaths have
also occurred in New York, Miami and Las Vegas.
An Associated Press analysis in June found that cities and
states have wildly varying rules governing construction cranes.
Cranes in Oklahoma fall under OSHA regulations but operate
without any state oversight, state Labor Commissioner Lloyd Fields
said. He said Oklahoma may join other states considering improved
regulatory oversight of cranes. Oklahoma is among 35 states that do
not require crane operators to be licensed.