We have all seen photos of cranes that come crashing to the ground and what they land on.  Usually, in most of the photos, what the crane landed on does not come out of the situation on the good side of things.  The same was true when a recent hurricane ripped through the state of Florida and brought 3 tower cranes to the ground.

One of them broke off and landed on an unfinished floor 50 stories above the ground.  In that situation, the crane counter weights, much like the ones we sell for your diecast model cranes, plummeted to the ground and found a new home buried in the asphalt below.  Of course, the cranes were not just falling apart due to old age, a hurricane with high winds was causing the issues.  Hurricane Irma did not have winds above 100 MPH for most of the storm and these tower cranes were rated for winds up to 145 MPH.

According to the numbers, there is no reason to believe these cranes should have even been any issue in the hurricane.  But, that was not the case in reality.  3 cranes came to the ground and now the question is whether or not someone will be held accountable for the mishap.  Clearly, even though the cranes were rated for the storm, they still broke apart and caused some serious damage on the way down.

In an article posted online, an official for the City of Miami stated that the chances that anyone will be held accountable are pretty much slim to none.  Because tower cranes are considered construction equipment, the building inspectors and the City of Miami do not hold jurisdiction over them and what happens when an incident like this happens.  

Things get a little more complicated when nobody is involved and workers are not hurt during the incident.  Either way, we all drive near and sometimes right next to cranes at some point in our life and it would not be a good scenario if one would come falling to the ground and hurt us at the same time.  Cities are working to regulate cranes and the safety that surrounds them.

A few years ago, stronger, weather related restrictions where placed on the crane industry.  The regulations seemed to have worked as cranes stopped falling out of the sky for the most part.  One would assume the company that was using the cranes would be responsible, but that was not the case during a hurricane.  The largest crane rental company in the world had 30 cranes in the air during hurricane Irma and only 3 fell.  Those numbers might not seem that high, but it all depends on what the crane falls on.

According to the COO of the crane rental company, the hurricane was an act of God and even though they are doing an investigation of their own, OSHA and the City of Miami can help, but do not have any sort of authority in the case.

Model cranes are not likely going to ever be regulated, but when you step back and think about things like this story, you have to wonder how it is that there is nobody that needs to take responsibility. 

What do you think?