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Crane Tips Over, Damages Building In Uptown Charlotte

Posted: 12:05 pm EDT August 7, 2008Updated: 5:47 pm EDT August 7, 2008

A small crane working in uptown Charlotte early Thursday tipped over and damaged a nearby business.

The truck-mounted crane was delivering materials to a high rise under construction near the new Wachovia building on Stonewall Street between South Tryon and College streets when it tilted and fell onto the Goodyear Auto Service Center building just before 11 a.m.

No one, including the crane driver, was hurt.

"Certainly, this could've been much worse,” said Capt. Mark Basnight of the Charlotte Fire Department. “We could've had a busy street. We could've had pedestrians injured, so in that light, we are fortunate."

Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigators are trying to figure out how the accident happened. Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officers said they believe the building materials the crane was lifting might have been too heavy, causing the equipment to topple over.

Engineers also checked the structural integrity of the Goodyear building, but police said it appears the building’s cinderblock construction absorbed the blow well and there was only minor damage.

Stonewall Street was closed for about four hours while the accident was investigated and another crane righted the fallen equipment.

Although there have been several deadly crane accidents nationwide, there haven’t been any major accidents in uptown Charlotte. North Carolina requires daily inspections of all cranes being used at construction sites, and Jason Kenna, whose family business owns most of the cranes being used in uptown, said his company spends extra money on an extra set of eyes.

"We get a lot of our cranes third-party inspected, so we have another set of eyes coming down and inspecting our job, making sure what we're doing is 100 percent safe," he said.

But with so many cranes around, some uptown workers said Thursday’s accident has them worried.

"I'll probably keep looking up at the sky when I'm walking now," said Musa Traore.

  • IMAGES: Crane Topples Onto Portion Of Uptown Building
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