Probe Of Fatal Crane Collapse To Start
Iron Worker, Weymouth Native Killed
POSTED: 7:35 am EDT August 15,
2008
UPDATED: 8:38 am EDT August 15,
2008
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QUINCY, Mass. -- Federal investigators from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration will be at the Fore River Shipyard in Quincy Friday to begin the task of finding out what caused the leg of a giant crane that was being dismantled to collapse prematurely, killing an iron worker.
Video Robert Harvey, 28, of Weymouth, died when the leg of the Goliath crane -- which once stood 25 stories tall -- fell on him Thursday afternoon.Four other workers suffered non-life-threatening injuries.Two were treated at the scene and two at a hospital. "It did collapse in the manner it was designed to collapse. It just did not collapse when it was supposed to, obviously," Quincy Fire Chief Joseph Barron said.The company supervising the demolition said it wasn't sure what went wrong. "Everything was progressing normally, and then suddenly, without warning, a connection of one leg to the body seemed to fail," said Greg Nordholm, of Seattle-based Norsar. "None of the lifting mechanism was affected. The structure is safe, secure and stable."Harvey had just celebrated his 28th birthday and was about to celebrate his second wedding anniversary with his wife, Jen.Instead, his family will be planning funeral arrangements for a man who always wanted to be an iron worker."Since seventh grade I think, when he was taking metal class in junior high, he wanted to be an iron worker. So, he loved it. And they loved him also. I could see from the emotions, the outpouring down there, that it was quite a scene when they had to take him out," Harvey's father, Robert, said.It was just about 12:30 p.m. when the leg gave way."One of the legs just collapsed, like, 300 feet out of the air. I don't know what they were doing but I don't think it was supposed to have happened," an emergency dispatcher said when the call came in.When the leg started to fall, it sent workers running for their lives."There was a person who said, 'Yes, you gotta get out of here now. When this thing collapses, the aftershock will break your ankles,'" said evacuee Trevor Childs. General Dynamics Corp. constructed the Goliath crane in the 1970s and used it to lift huge pieces of ships and tankers at the Fore River Shipyard, which once employed 32,000 people. The crane has been a fixture in the skies over Quincy for decades, but it's been idle since the shipyard closed in 1986.Workers have been dismantling the crane for the past several weeks in preparation for its shipment to Romania where Daewoo-Mangalia Heavy Industries, a shipbuilding and repair company, planned to put it back to use.
Video Robert Harvey, 28, of Weymouth, died when the leg of the Goliath crane -- which once stood 25 stories tall -- fell on him Thursday afternoon.Four other workers suffered non-life-threatening injuries.Two were treated at the scene and two at a hospital. "It did collapse in the manner it was designed to collapse. It just did not collapse when it was supposed to, obviously," Quincy Fire Chief Joseph Barron said.The company supervising the demolition said it wasn't sure what went wrong. "Everything was progressing normally, and then suddenly, without warning, a connection of one leg to the body seemed to fail," said Greg Nordholm, of Seattle-based Norsar. "None of the lifting mechanism was affected. The structure is safe, secure and stable."Harvey had just celebrated his 28th birthday and was about to celebrate his second wedding anniversary with his wife, Jen.Instead, his family will be planning funeral arrangements for a man who always wanted to be an iron worker."Since seventh grade I think, when he was taking metal class in junior high, he wanted to be an iron worker. So, he loved it. And they loved him also. I could see from the emotions, the outpouring down there, that it was quite a scene when they had to take him out," Harvey's father, Robert, said.It was just about 12:30 p.m. when the leg gave way."One of the legs just collapsed, like, 300 feet out of the air. I don't know what they were doing but I don't think it was supposed to have happened," an emergency dispatcher said when the call came in.When the leg started to fall, it sent workers running for their lives."There was a person who said, 'Yes, you gotta get out of here now. When this thing collapses, the aftershock will break your ankles,'" said evacuee Trevor Childs. General Dynamics Corp. constructed the Goliath crane in the 1970s and used it to lift huge pieces of ships and tankers at the Fore River Shipyard, which once employed 32,000 people. The crane has been a fixture in the skies over Quincy for decades, but it's been idle since the shipyard closed in 1986.Workers have been dismantling the crane for the past several weeks in preparation for its shipment to Romania where Daewoo-Mangalia Heavy Industries, a shipbuilding and repair company, planned to put it back to use.
Previous Stories:
- August 14, 2008: 'He Loved His Job,' Crane Victim's Dad Says
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