It could have been a lot worse, but fortunately, no one suffered injuries when a construction crane fell and crashed into a Louisiana retirement home last week. As reported at forbes.com, the crane fell into the lobby of the The Oaks retirement home in Shreveport.
Emergency responders took one employee of the home to the hospital as a precaution, said a spokesperson for the residence. The crane missed resident’s rooms as it landed in the common area said the spokesperson. Workers had the crane at the home to replace some air conditioning units. Workers used another crane to remove the toppled one from the site.
According to the federal government’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), there are about 125,000 construction cranes in use in the United States. The most recent statistics from 2006 report that there were 72 crane-related deaths in the United States, according to the Department of Labor.
It is the employer’s responsibility to make sure crane operators have the proper training and certifications. Inexperienced operators are unaware of how loads and swing-weight can make a crane extremely dangerous. The accident above did not cause serious personal injury, but someone is responsible for the property damage.
Harrell & Nowak, L.L.C. – New Orleans accident lawyers