[Footage catches moment falling crane misses girl by just seconds]
Saw this on sky news this morning can’t find a better video link.
Truck lifting a. Portacabn/container by look. of it the whole thing topples over onto the houses in Wigan area yesterday.
I’m not expert on hiabs…but why was he lifting it so high in the 1st place think video might not be on link but here’s a picture
b’yay-sus 
what a fiasco!
He was on the side of the road furthest from the houses, it shouldn’t have been going anywhere except his side of the road. The only thing I can think is that he was trying to get past the trees it drop it in the yard of that building, but even then he’s doing everything all wrong. It also looks a little like he’s got wheels on the kerb
Pure guess…Based on very little info.
The truck gets as close as possible to the sports field and intends lifting over the trees and onto the truck bed.
So the legs are correctly extended on the side the load is. That is where all the leverage is expected to be, innit.
To avoid a road closure the legs on that side don’t need to be extended far. After all the load is not swinging out that side: once clear of the trees just lower onto the bed. (Edit at least that is the idea)
It was Saturday mid morning. 40kph winds from the east.
When the box was above the trees and inline with the truck bed. 10/15? metres above the bed there would have been quite a moment pushing the jib away from the field and towards the houses.
It might have been some other cause, it might have been mechanical failure, ground giving way, legs on top of a culvert, a whole host of possibilities, and I don’t normally bet, but I would risk 50p it is the wind as much as anything.
Was ring door bell footage on sky news this morning showing exactly what happened.
But can’t find proper video anyware.
Manchester evening news website is saying the driver had picked the cabin up off the playing field when it happened .either way not good
It looked like the driver to me had only put the legs out on the one side of the truck from the videos I saw. Surely lifting something that high required all outriggers to be extended for stability.
The higher you lift and the more extended the boom let alone wind issues requires more safety and thought.
Just my perspective from a layman who has never used a hiab before.
Just watched the video again, it may have been in the comments I read that the kegs had not been extended on the offside.
Actually looking at news videos or the recovery it does look like only the nearside outriggers were out as the truck was truly on its side and can’t see any evidence of the offside legs being out.
I can’t get a video to work at all, perhaps I am out of area, all I can see is a small person wearing a space helmet. 
Hiab work was my mainstay of driving for almost a decade; not blocking the road is not a legitimate reason for not extending both outriggers.
He was never going to be able to lift over those trees with that crane anyways, so I’m still not sure what he was even trying to do, must have got his hiab ticket from a Lucky Bag
Try this see if it works
please explain this to me. never done hiab or any work like it so i simply dont know. but surly for something to fall to the right the weight has to be past the center of gravity to the right. or am i completely wrong
Thanks, I see it now, really frightening.
That may be the error the operator made.
40kph on a “container” is it an ISO 20’ unit? Will make for a lot of force a long way from the center of moment of the system.
Very quick and dirty:
40kph = 10m/sec
Area 20ft box 2x6 = 12 m^2
Air density 1.225 kg/m^3
Gives us 735 Nf
Call it 70kg at …guessing…10m above the ground?
That is equivalent to having 3/4 ton hanging over the side of the vehicle.
Not a lot in itself maybe, but it the truck leans across just a few degrees… then the CofG will as you say move past the point of safety
remember it is very high to clear the trees and away she goes.
I also mentioned the ground. Having the legs further from the vehicle decreases the load on them at point of contact. If it is a soft road the jack feet will sink into the tarmac if load spreading boards aren’t used.
I am not saying that is what happened.
Pure speculation, but it seems to me the figures make it easily possible.
I have been using HIAB for more than 15 years and even I can see that his offside stabliser leg is only out about 2 feet, it should be at least 5-6 feet on a rigid, Health and Safety are going to have a field day with this one.
what are the rules for doing a job like that does it have to be organised with the council or the police so the road can be partially coned off?
Generally it needs both sides legs put out.The margin of a fulcrum point v gravity forming to the left or right across the centre line is so fine as to be non existent.To the point where which side the lift is going from/to the truck is irrelevant as it gets nearer to the centre of the load deck.That margin gets even worse with height.
Not sure if even legs both sides would have helped in this case at that height when gravity and force x height/distance took over.
Simcor more safety and thought as in too much for that amount of extension turn around and go home.
That job needed a few hours of office risk assessments and lifting calculations before even setting out to do it.
Even with outriggers it looks like a lot of weight hanging at that amount of crane extension.
My view of Hiab work was I’m a driver not a crane operator.
The amount of unwanted Hiab work on agencies confirmed it.
That drivers truck driving career is probably now over all because of a crane lifting operation going wrong.Is it worth it.
The reason that there is a lot of unwanted Hiab work on agency is that it’s mostly builders merchant type work and all the hassle that goes with it,
Working in general haulage we did collections for a Builder’s Merchant. Big sites were often direct from factory onto a closed site.
When busy we also did the local stuff from their depot to private houses. I only did a bit of that, but as you say, it could be painful.
The customer wanted brick packs lifted over walls and fences but under phone lines, not on the nice grass, and can you just get it a bit further, and I’m sorry I don’t know who left that car parked there etc etc.
All good fun!
