Two videos of terrifying accidents on construction sites in the Russian resort area of Sochi have surfaced.
Sochi is one of Russia’s most active construction areas. The choice of the town for the 2014 Winter Olympics was intended to begin a massive programme of infrastructure works. It is now one of the venues for next year’s World Cup finals.
In one, a construction worker jumps from his crane moments before it tumbles into a pit at a building site in the city of Sochi in the northern Caucasus. In the video, the crane lowers a bulldozer into the pit, but is unable to take the weight and topples over.
In the second, taken in July, it is a mobile crane that is being lowered from a larger crane. In this case, the cables from which it is suspended part, causing the vehicle to crash to the ground.
Image: A crane being lowered into position in Sochi (YouTube)
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As lesson learned, thorough load chat verifications could have been matched with the lowering load prior to hoisting and a signal person or spotter required when the point of crane operation not in full and direct view of the operator and less than 100’ in distance which required a spotter. All signal person or spotter must use a universal uniform signal system. The crane operator and spotter must adapt to hand and signaling systems. including naming a competent person to oversee the step-by-step sequence of operations. In situations as such, where the operator cannot see adequate landing location of the load and caused a near miss situation, audio (radio) communications can be used (note that this does not preclude the use of hand signals in addition to audio); in all other operations, audio should be used.