Welder crushed by crane collision

摘要

The death of an employee hit by a three tonne piece of cylindrical steel when two overhead cranes collided has landed a refinery equipment manufacturer with penalties of 125,000 pounds. Manchester Crown Court was told the incident happened at Refinery Supplies in Chadderton, Oldham, while Michael Wickstead was welding a lip onto the bottom of a steel container, which would be used to hold molten lead or zinc. The container section had been lowered but was still attached to chains from the overhead crane that had been used to move it. When a colleague used a second crane on the same overhead rail to move another container up the workshop, he pressed the wrong button, sending the crane in the opposite direction. The collision tightened the chains on the piece of steel Wickstead was working on, altering its centre of gravity and creating a pendulum movement; it hit Wickstead, crushing him against another steel sphere.