RailEnquiry

CHENNAI: It was a human error that caused the crane accident last Wednesday at Pachaiyappa's College underground station site, says a preliminary report submitted by the safety consultant on Monday. The boom of a crawler crane carrying a 17-tonne mesh on Wednesday came crashing on the workers, killing one of them and injuring six others."The report says prima facie the accident happened because the crane operator did not lift the load properly," said V Somasundaram, chief general manager, construction, Chennai Metro Rail. The operator tried to move it horizontally and swing it to avoid an obstacle. Horizontal movement of crane is prohibited and load should only be lifted vertically. The flexibility of the boom to lift the load was low because it was in a 30degree angle instead of being perpendicular, the official said. "We will check whether crane operators have competence for the job at our work sites. We will check whether they have proper training and competence certificates. More corrective steps will be taken only after a detailed investigation report is submitted," he added.Now, metro will sensitise its crane operators to follow all operation procedures strictly. After the accident, metro officials inspected safety of cranes at all work sites. But, they were all found to be fit and safe. "We checked whether the machines had proper documentation like worthiness certificate, operator's competence certificate, manufacturer's manual and others. The machines have relevant papers and are fit," said Somasundaram.

The accident happened in spite of safety training and campaigns conducted for employees and contractors at work sites of underground stations along the Poonamallee High Road and Anna Salai. Police had arrested two officials of Larson and Toubro and detained the crane operator who was absconding.

This is the second accident at a metro rail site in the city. On July 26, a mould of a pillar near Vadapalani collapsed soon after being filled with concrete. Nobody was injured in the accident.