Construction Work Safety: Melbourne Crane Operator Killed in a Fall

This case study reports the Melbourne crane operator that was killed in a 35m high fall in Grocon’s Emporium project. It analyzes the root cause of the accident and provides recommendations to prevent similar incidents. The study also includes a literature review on crane-related accidents and their causes.

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CASE STUDY: MELBOURNE CRANE OPERATOR KILLED IN A FALL
ROOT CAUSE OF ACCIDENTS

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Executive summary
This case study is reports the Melbourne crane operator that was killed in a 35m high fall in Grocon’s Emporium
project that occurred in the wee hours of the morning in 18th February 2013. A thorough analysis of the case was
conducted which establish a breach in implementation the safety workplace procedures and lack of safety
representatives on site to ensure that the safety regulations are adhered to at all cost.
A literature review was carried out to facilitate an in depth understanding of the events and concepts of accidents
that are related to the case study. Such literatures include, ‘health and safety in construction’, ‘Safety design
principles in construction works’, ‘Case study in fatal incidents involving cranes in Australian industry’ etc.
In order to prevent such cases from reoccurring, certain recommendations were highlighted. These included
ensuring cranes run on a stable and levelled ground, providing safety representatives are on site, ensuring cranes lift
loads at their capacity to avoid them from tipping off, disposing off waste materials from site, wiping off any
spillage on machines and site.

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Table of contents
Executive summary....................................................................................................................................................................2
Introduction................................................................................................................................................................................4
Case description.......................................................................................................................................................................... 4
Melbourne crane operator killed in fall.....................................................................................................................................4
Literature review........................................................................................................................................................................5
Causes of Crane-related accidents............................................................................................................................................5
Areas prone to accidents around Cranes...................................................................................................................................6
Different Types of Cranes and Their risk levels.......................................................................................................................7
Case Analysis..............................................................................................................................................................................8
Recommendation..........................................................................................................................................................................9
Control Measures....................................................................................................................................................................10
Consequences of construction accidents.................................................................................................................................10
Conclusion................................................................................................................................................................................. 10
References.................................................................................................................................................................................. 11

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Introduction
A great percentage of accidents that have been reported to occur in construction sites are as a result of crane use.
when compared to other movable machinery used. The case of a crane driver falling is not an isolated scenario for
Australia alone as the situation is also the same in Canada and the United States. According to Behm & Schneller
(2012) opines that crane-related fatalities in the United States are about 8% of the total fatalities that take place in
the construction industry. Earlier research conducted in regards to construction accidents involving cranes focused
on the factors that lead to accidents happening. Nevertheless, grasping the particular factors that contribute to the
accidents is more important (Cooke & Lingard, 2011). According to Aneziris et al., (2012) many accident reports only
focus on the physical attributes of the accidents ignoring the fact that there is need to discover the root cause of the
accident. Therefore, this research attempts to get more insight on the root cause of crane related accidents and the
safety procedures that can be implemented to avert such accidents. The research scope will only focus on Australia
construction industry and by the help of various written material discuss the root cause of accident caused while
using cranes in the construction site. The paper will also look at Grocon’s Emporium Project located along Lonsdale
Street in Melbourne; the risk analysis and further advice of precautions measures to be taken by construction
workers.
Case description
Melbourne crane operator killed in fall
A crane driver aged 59 years old fell 35 meters at a construction site in Melbourne Australia on the 18th of February
2013 (ABC News, 2013). The cane driver who was well experienced succumbed to his injuries. According to Safe
Work Australia (2013) 359 laborers have perished on construction sites between the 2004 and 2013. In this period
of ten years 14% of the fatalities were from the Australian Construction Industry. Reports from Safe Work Australia
shows that in a period of five years between 2006 and 2011 the number of serious cases presented were 13,106
(Australian broadcasting Corporation, 2016). This in essence means that the number of work related accidents taking
place in Australia were soaring every single day.

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The crane operator in a construction site in Melbourne Central Business District was killed in a fall. The crane was
positioned in a corner of Elizabeth and Lonsdale streets and it is believed that the driver fell from a height of 35m at
around 7am in Australian Eastern Daylight Time. The driver was reported dead after a few minutes when workers
came to his aid but unfortunately the damage had already been done due to the impact and they were unable to
resuscitate him but watch him die in agony. The construction workers union were traumatized by the incident that
left many workers and Grocon sites were shocked and dumbfounded to the point that they could not continue with
their work to show respect to the dead. Since the site was being managed by Grocon Company, the Chief Executive
Daniel Grollo was approached to give more details about the incident but was unable to speak and only termed it as
a tragic incident. Definitely, this was a terrible event that no one wished it to happen. The event that followed saw
Grocon company closing down its sites across Victoria pending investigations on the matter. A number of
speculations were being peddled concerning what may have been the circumstance that lead to this untimely death,
however all this gobbled down to the need of workplace safety
Figure 1: Photo from ABC TV showing the worker who fell from the crane in Melbourne CBD
Literature review
Causes of Crane-related accidents.
Earlier studies on the reasons of crane-related accidents focused more importantly on the causes of accidents in the
firms and specifically looked into the cranes that are prone to accidents. According to one-hundred and twenty-

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seven cranes were involved in accidents in Australia between 1997 and 2003 (Cooke & Lingard, 2011). Reports from
the analysis pointed at the following cause as the leading in terms of accidents; Struck by load were 32%, 27% were
electrocuted, crushed during the assembling and disassembling process were 12% and 12% fatalities were as a result
of cable failure. Additionally, according to a research conducted by Behm & Schneller, (2012) 307 crane accidents
caused the death of 323 people in the Australia in a period of 14 years (1992-2006). The analysis by McCann
pointed at electrocution as the leading cause of deaths at 32% which is a total of 102 fatalities. Second cause of
deaths was the falling of cranes which lead to 59 fatalities (21%). Third is struck by a load or crane boom which
caused 59 fatalities (18%).
The studies by Aneziris et al., (2012) and (Aneziris et al., 2012) concur with findings of (Lingard, et al., 2013b) who in
their study came up with an informed taxonomy relying on Haddon’s damaging energies thoughts to scrutinize the
history of crane-related accidents. In their work, Shepherd, Kahler and Cross concluded that gravitational and
electrical energy were the leading causes of fatalities in crane related accidents
More so, crane accidents are majorly caused by unintended contact with naked electric cables (Lingard, 2013a). (Great
Britain Health and Safety Executive , 2017). In a study he conducted from gathering data from France, United States and
Canada it showed that 75% of the electrical accidents that occurred were as result of unintentional contact of the
boom with a power line. Nevertheless, the study also shows that 17% of the electrical accidents were as a result of
interacting with the cable while only 5% is attributed to getting in contact with the load that in most cases is made of
timber or steel frames. According to (Luo, et al., 2011) the leading victims in electrical accidents are mostly ground
helpers and statistics showed that 90% of the fatalities were ground helpers. The other group affected were crane
operators but the rate was minimal as the accidents only took place when they unintentionally came into contact
with power lines when living the cabins. According to (Raviv at al., 2017) most of the labourers that perished as a
result of crane accidents were other workers working in the area were cranes were operating and not crane
operators.
Areas prone to accidents around Cranes.
While working to discover and understand the areas prone to accidents in a place were cranes are operational, Luo,
Leite and O’Brien (2011) sought answers from workers in the Construction Industry Institute Community of

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Practice (CIICP). The findings pointed at the following areas as prone to accidents; the area beneath the crane load,
the loading and unloading area and the area around movable parts of the crane. The study further identified areas
that were particularly risky in respect to movement of the crane boom; Closeness to structures around, proximity to
roads and paths, closeness to electric lines and also closeness to other crane structures.
Different Types of Cranes and Their risk levels.
According to (Shapira, et al., 2012) safety risks are dependent on different types of cranes. Each crane has its set level
of risk. Cooke & Lingard, (2011) opines that mobile cranes are highly prone to accidents at 88% while 56% of
accidents are caused by the movable cranes had lattice boom. (Tam & Fung, 2011) presented that the implication of
lattice-boom cranes in 93% of fatalities that were related with collection or disassembly. Often the deaths happened
when a boom section, hold only by a hoist line, fell and hit a laborer under. Accidents involving tower cranes are
estimated at 7% compared to mobile lattice boom cranes.
Overhead power lines is an area where cranes are in operation pose a moderate safety risk (Tam & Fung, 2011).
(Shapira, et al., 2012) differs as in the report he notes that accidents involving electrocution because of interacting
with electricity cables, in their example were movable cranes. Naturally, mobile cranes are at highly prone to
accidents due the fact that they could get unstable. According to (Lingard, et al., 2013b), cases of cranes tipping over
basically involved mobile cranes.
Lingard (2013a) discovered the factors that highly affect the safety of utilizing tower cranes. According to expert’s
human factor was highly ranked since machines were under the control of human beings. Operator proficiency
which is basically the ability of the crane operator to take note of the safety precautions of using the machine was
also a leading factor. In operation there are times when operators tend to blind lift objects due to various reasons
such as inadequate lighting, the loading area being way far from the cabin, blockage from other physical structures.
According to Tam and Fung (2011) these are the contributing factors that result to fatal tower crane accidents; crane
operators’ tiredness caused by working for many hours with minimal resting time, ineffective control and risk
assessment and poor passage of information due to different layers of contractors.
Shapira, Simcha and Golden berg (2012) developed a mechanism which can be used in determining how safe a
tower crane is for it to be used in a construction project. The system puts into perspective a number of factors that

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could contribute to rise of accidents while utilizing a tower crane in a specific project. The data collected is the put
together with calculated risk levels obtained from experts who have assessed the ability for each factor improve
safety levels. Additionally, other factors are the consolidated as multipliers. Therefore, the calculated mechanism
attached on the system shows; the scope in which a tower crane works away from the set boundaries of the project
site and the state of the surrounding area that is if the area is urban, regular or busy urban. Second is the state and
level of crane use which in essence is the amount and intensity of work handled by the crane. The information and
knowledge has been developed into a computer-based assessment tool.
The aim of this paper was to analyze the findings of a case study on construction safety issue in Melbourne in
regards to accidents caused by cranes in the Australian Construction Industry. This paper goes out of its way not
only to discuss the causes of accidents at construction sites as a result of faulty cranes but digs deep to find the rout
cause of the accidents and as well provide solutions.
Case Analysis
It was discovered that the experienced crane driver came to his untimely death after a fall of 10 stories at Grocon
Emporium project located along Lonsdale Street. It is believed that he was at the highest point in the crane tower.
The accident was reported to be the 10th death that happened so far in the year 2013 on Australian building sites.
Events leading to the fall was recorded to be as a result of human error or slip fall. The crane was found to be
slightly tilted which might have caused unrest for the driver who slipped off but it was still in stable condition and
the straps were still intact with no evidence of the parts of the crane falling off. As custom dictates, all the Grocon
construction sites in Victorian building sites stopped which ultimately caused delays. However, it seems like Grocon
construction was facing safety workplaces issues because the previous year on the month of August, union blockade
erupted which caused the closure of the site for a fortnight. Prompting Grocon to file a lawsuit against the union.
This definitely informs you that the company was facing certain safety issues that needed to be addressed but the
persons involved ignored to take safety measures. Workers reported lack of safety representatives on site to inform
workers on the safety measures to take while undertaking their operations. The crane driver was seemingly not in
his appropriate gears to climb to that height and workers watched in disbelief as he came falling down. It goes to
show how risky and dangerous our construction industry is; thus it is important for construction industry to adhere
to simple safety rules in order to save lives because such an accident is not unique and can happen at any time on

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any site. The employer will be responsible for compensating the family of the crane driver for misfortune that
befallen their loved one.
Figure 2: Scene of the Emporium project Source: (ABC News, 2013)
Recommendation
Figure 3: workplace safety procedures Source: (Behm & Schneller, 2012)
Slip, Trip and Falls are the most common safety management practices in construction sites. Slip occurs as a cause
of friction between the feet and the surface it stands on thus causing an individual to loss balance. Whereas trip
occurs when the feet hits an obstacle on the path of movement while the upper body part continues to move as a
result of inertial in motion. However, fall can be categorised into two, the fall from high heights to a lower level and
the fall on the same level.

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Control Measures
 Ensuring cranes run on a stable and levelled ground
 Ensuring safety representatives are on site
 Ensuring cranes lift loads at their capacity to avoid them from tipping off
 Disposing off waste materials from site.
 Floors must remain dry and clean.
 Wiping off any spillage on machines and site
 Clear off any debris on site
 Walkways on site should be devoid of obstacles that can cause tripping.
 Cables and binding wires should be kept in allotment place in site
Consequences of construction accidents
Unfortunately, when workers are injured in a construction site, it does not only affect their lives and livelihood, but
it possesses a lot of problems to their families as well. Construction accidents can lead to expensive medical bills
and treatment (Great Britain Health and Safety Executive , 2017). Construction accidents can have a great impact on the
family in cases where the injured worker was the sole breadwinner.
Conclusion
The analysis of the case at Grocon building site, Emporium project, in Melbourne, was caused as a result of slip fall
that could be avoided if workplace safety measures were not ignored. It was primarily the responsibility of Grocon
Company to ensure the safety of their workers but because of their inefficiency and incompetence that lead to the
failure of safety management procedures. It is recommended that crane drivers on site should use safety gears and
tangled ropes due to heights involved in their risky work.

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References
ABC News, 2013. Melbourne crane operator killed in fall. [Online]
Available at: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-02-18/melbourne-construction-worker-killed-in-fall/4524486
[Accessed 28 May 2019].
Australian broadcasting Corporation (ABC) 2013, Melbourne crane operator killed in fall, [online] Available
at: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-02-18/melbourne-construction-worker-killed-in-fall/4524486.
Aneziris, O.N., Topali, E. and Papazoglou, I.A., 2012. Occupational risk of building construction. Reliability Engineering &
System Safety, 105, pp.36-46.
Behm, M. and Schneller, A., 2012. Application of the Loughborough construction accident causation model: a
framework for organizational learning. Construction Management and Economics,
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Cooke, T. and Lingard, H., 2011. A retrospective analysis of work-related deaths in the Australian construction
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Great Britain Health and Safety Executive , 2017. Health and Safety in Construction. 3rd ed. London: Wiley,.
Lingard, H., Cooke, T. and Gharaie, E., 2013a. The how and why of plant-related fatalities in the Australian
construction industry. Engineering Construction and Architectural Management. 20(4), pp.365-80.
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Australian construction industry. Engineering Construction and Architectural Management. 20(5), pp.488-504.
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Lucas, C., 2013. Crane driver falls to death in city. [Online]
Available at: https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/crane-driver-falls-to-death-in-city-20130218-2enhe.html
[Accessed 28 May 2019].

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Luo, X., Leite, F. and O’Brien, W.J., 2011. Requirements for Autonomous Crane Safety Monitoring. In: Yimin Zhu,
and R. Raymond Issa, eds. 2011. Computing in Civil Engineering. Miami, Florida US: American Society of Civil
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science, 91, pp.192-205.
Shapira, A., Simcha, M. and Goldenberg, M., 2012. Integrative Model for Quantitative Evaluation of Safety on
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