Bus Passengers Injured by Crane; Would Cameras Have Helped?

Bus Passengers

There are many circumstances where innocent bystanders are injured during a crane accident. One such incident occurred in Seattle, Washington, when a crane knocked a large road sign into a bus full of passengers. Eight people were injured in the accident which involved a large boom crawler, according to Crane Accidents.

As the crane operator was using the crane to lift large steel tubes from a trailer along highway 520, the load hit one of the big highway signs overhead. The support gantry then broke loose from the vertical supports, and the road sign slammed into the bus. All of this took place near Lake Washington Boulevard.

The driver of the bus was narrowly missed by the flying road sign, and managed to keep the bus upright after the sign landed on the front end of the bus. There were twenty passengers on board, and eight of them were taken to local hospitals to be treated for injuries. It was necessary to close the road long enough to remove the sign and debris from the crash.

Accidents such as this one could be much more devastating, depending on the number of people involved, the area where the accident occurs, and other outside influences. While the crane operator cannot help outside influences, there are new ways to help control the inside influences of every load and lift. By adding HoistCam’s cameras on cranes to the lift, we can expand the site of the crane operator too see anywhere o the job site, and any part of the lift.

“How could this have helped in this bus accident?” You may ask. Let us explain. If one of HoistCam’s cameras had been installed on the hook block or other parts of the crane, the crane operator would have had full visibility of that lift. It is very likely that he would have seen the danger of the load hitting the overhead road sign, and been able to take measures that would have avoided the accident.

That is one of the main purposes for the creation of HoistCam’s cameras on cranes. If we could place a camera on every crane, the number of crane accidents would dramatically be reduced. While this, of course, will lower the costs of construction and increase efficiency, it will greatly increase safety. And safety is, after all, our goal.