Crane fall victim’s miracle survival (From Daily Echo)
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Southampton docks resume work amid collapse probe
12:10pm Wednesday 15th July 2009 in News
TWO broken legs, a broken pelvis, crushed ribs and a perforated lung – that is the horrific catalogue of injuries suffered by the Southampton dock worker crushed when the crane he was operating collapsed.
Jay Squibb was last night recovering in hospital from another day of surgery, after he plunged 100ft with his driver’s cab and was crushed among tonnes of twisted metal on the container ship NYK Themis.
It is understood Jay, 33, from Woolston, who has two young sons – Finn, seven, and Wilson, who will be one on Saturday – is now off the critical list at Southampton General Hospital.
As shipside operations at Southampton container terminal resumed less than 24 hours after the incident, Jay’s brothers spoke of their horror at the collapse.
Steven and Colby Squibb both also work at the docks, where less than two years ago another crane made by the same company – Morris – crashed on to the ship Kyoto Express.
Steven said: “I got to the scene as soon as I could and went up and observed the emergency services doing a brilliant job trying to free him.
“You’ve got to take your hat off to the skill of these people and as a family we’re very grateful to the emergency services and some of his colleagues who were up there straight away.”
Colby added: “We all saw what happened 19 months ago, and it was just devastating, absolutely awful. It’s a miracle he’s still alive.
“We’re a very, very close family. He’s a dedicated family man and I would class him as my best mate as well. It’s been hard.”
Port operations were stopped for weeks after the January 2008 incident, but less than a day after crane six collapsed on to the NYK Themis, six gantry cranes and a mobile harbour crane are being used again.
‘Russian roulette’ The Health and Safety Executive (HSE), which is investigating both incidents, has approved services resuming, but ordered that five cranes remain out of action pending safety checks.
Port bosses have yet to comment on worker safety, but the union Unite says the matter is of “paramount importance”.
Last night, one dock worker who has returned to work told the Daily Echo he believes staff play “Russian roulette” when they get into cranes, but their concerns aren’t great enough to keep them away.
“It isn’t necessarily about the crane maintenance, it’s the fact that at any time we can lift up locked-on boxes and it can cause a crane to collapse, or like yesterday, Jay could have been driving normally and that happens,” he said.
Comments(19)
Sunny Saint
says...
1:56pm Wed 15 Jul 09
He applied via the job center on leaving the army, was interviewed and got the job. That was 7 years ago. He is now driving/operating one of those giant Container mover thingys and works a shift system that runs 27/7. By that Token Mr. Devon Saint you know as much about Nepotism as you most probably know about the daily operations of a working Dockyard. Pull yr head out fromm yr **** mate and stop being a kn0b.
By the way, lets all wish a very speedy recovery to Mr Squibb
CompassPressureGroup
says...
2:34pm Wed 15 Jul 09
There have been some very informed and interesting posts relating to this incident. Some questions that
hopefully those people (e.g. Andy Locks Heath, saint tom, Nearly an OAP) or others can answer:
"less than a day after crane six collapsed on to the NYK Themis, six gantry cranes and a mobile harbour
crane are being used again."
1. Are the cranes that have resumed operations the same type of cranes and the same age, with potential metal fatigue, as the two that have collapsed?
2. What assessments on metal fatigue and other structural weaknesses were made after the first collapse? Why did these assessments not lead to crane 6 being deemed unsafe? And are these same flawed assessments being used in assessing whether operations are "safe" to resume?
3. Are the HSE findings on the initial investigation available to the public? If not, why not? Are HSE investigations exempt from Freedom of Information requests?
4. As costs have been cut, including via redundancies, has safety also been sacrificed due to workload targets (e.g. 25 moves an hour), loss of experienced staff and costs? I agree with "Nearly an OAP" who said:
"Peoples lives should come before profit every time." That didn't seem to be the case with Railtrack, which
was why it was pretty much nationalised into Network Rail.
5. "saint tom" - "however in 2004-2005 this type of crane was made 5 meters higher and the booms extended by 4 meters with swl increase from 36 tonnes to 41 tonnes". My basic understanding of physics (not a mech/civil engineer) would reason that the turning effect on the holding structures by increasing weights and increasing the length of the boom without reliable strengthening of the crane could explain one or both of the collapses?
Would be very interested to hear informed opinions on this.
allsaintsnocurves
says...
3:18pm Wed 15 Jul 09
Nearly an OAP
says...
3:19pm Wed 15 Jul 09
, Southampton has made many very interesting points in his post. I can't begin to answer most of these as I am an ex-docker who worked under these cranes when they were comparatively new and not a specialist in H&S, metallurgy or crane manufacture and maintenance. Hopefully these answers will come in time and be made public as I believe these older modified cranes are now a major hazard, especially if they are attempting to lift boxes that are still locked on via twistlocks.
Redback
says...
3:21pm Wed 15 Jul 09
It's very fortunate that Southampton General has some of the very best surgeons in the country.
saint tom
says...
5:12pm Wed 15 Jul 09
CompassPressureGroup wrote:i would think the ship side ops that have resumed would be the 206-207 berth cranes.
Firstly it is pleasing that Jay Squibb is now in a stable condition thanks to the fine hospital staff, but he should not be in this situation. There have been some very informed and interesting posts relating to this incident. Some questions that hopefully those people (e.g. Andy Locks Heath, saint tom, Nearly an OAP) or others can answer: "less than a day after crane six collapsed on to the NYK Themis, six gantry cranes and a mobile harbour crane are being used again." 1. Are the cranes that have resumed operations the same type of cranes and the same age, with potential metal fatigue, as the two that have collapsed? 2. What assessments on metal fatigue and other structural weaknesses were made after the first collapse? Why did these assessments not lead to crane 6 being deemed unsafe? And are these same flawed assessments being used in assessing whether operations are "safe" to resume? 3. Are the HSE findings on the initial investigation available to the public? If not, why not? Are HSE investigations exempt from Freedom of Information requests? 4. As costs have been cut, including via redundancies, has safety also been sacrificed due to workload targets (e.g. 25 moves an hour), loss of experienced staff and costs? I agree with "Nearly an OAP" who said: "Peoples lives should come before profit every time." That didn't seem to be the case with Railtrack, which was why it was pretty much nationalised into Network Rail. 5. "saint tom" - "however in 2004-2005 this type of crane was made 5 meters higher and the booms extended by 4 meters with swl increase from 36 tonnes to 41 tonnes". My basic understanding of physics (not a mech/civil engineer) would reason that the turning effect on the holding structures by increasing weights and increasing the length of the boom without reliable strengthening of the crane could explain one or both of the collapses? Would be very interested to hear informed opinions on this.
these are the newer spanish made pacheco (not sure if i have spelt this correctly) and the brand new liehberr ones these cranes have a double spreader to allow them to lift 2x 20 foot boxes at once.
it would be interesting to know if the old morris ones had been modified for this task ?.
i can remember on many occasions whilst unloading a vessel with dodgey conlocks that would stick or be in up side down meaning a driver would offten lift 2 or 3 40 foot boxes at once. poss 80- 100 tonnes an alarm would sound and a
auto stop function on crane would kick in.
the answer to this would be simple control would send fitters along and simply over ride this alarm.
is this safe working practice ???
are the shipping lines to blame for this ?
would d.p world be prepared to refuse to work a ship that does not maintain its equiptment ?.
money tells me not.
we should take a leaf out of the yanks h&s book those guys would simply not work on unsafe machinery or shipping.
CompassPressureGroup
says...
5:42pm Wed 15 Jul 09
Anyone else like to add anything in response to CompassPressureGroup
, and the following posts?
felixstowe cranedriver
says...
6:23pm Wed 15 Jul 09
Hope all goes well our hearts go out to you, Be strong mate!
from
andy cornforth & the rest of b shift crane drivers felixstowe
number 1
says...
6:40pm Wed 15 Jul 09
all of the cranes at the 204 side of the new liebherr cranes will now be taken out of service. and no dp world will not refuse to work a ship if it has not properly maintained the gear many times we have worked on crappy vessels but cant see that this would have anything to do with the cause of the two crane booms collapsing
saint tom
says...
8:19pm Wed 15 Jul 09
number 1 wrote:so are to trying to tell me that a crane designed to lift 40 tonnes and keeps accidently lifting 70 plus womt suffer any stress or metal fatigue ??
the six cranes working are all newer than the morris ones. mobile harbour crane is totally different type of crane. all of the cranes except crane 3 can twin lift 2 20ft boxes. all of the cranes at the 204 side of the new liebherr cranes will now be taken out of service. and no dp world will not refuse to work a ship if it has not properly maintained the gear many times we have worked on crappy vessels but cant see that this would have anything to do with the cause of the two crane booms collapsing
ive spent enough years in the rn and working with dockside cranes to know that it will and eventually something will give.
its bound to happen on a worldwide term once in a while thats life.
but 2 in the same terminal in less that years.
i dont think so mate do you ?
all i am saying is this needs to be investigated from top to bottom with no stone left unturned. cause it obviously wasn`t last time.
OR it WILL happen again.
saint tom
says...
8:28pm Wed 15 Jul 09
number 1
says...
9:02pm Wed 15 Jul 09
saint tom
says...
9:24pm Wed 15 Jul 09
number 1 wrote:to true mate they wanna get their fingers out of each others ars**s and look into some real h&s issues.
the weights are checked and twin lifts are within the safe limits most of the time but u cant weigh every box coming into the terminal. i was saying the state of the ship shouldnt have anything to do with these two accidents. evrything does need to be checked with no stone left unturned otherwise it will happen again and again down there. the health and safety dept are to worried about making sure we stick to designated walkways in the car parks and dont spend enough time on the terminal observing what goes on during the working day
rather than joe docker walking along the quay without his chin strap down on his hard hat.
Avid-reader
says...
8:11am Thu 16 Jul 09
CompassPressureGroup
says...
10:11am Thu 16 Jul 09
Avid-reader
says...
12:16pm Thu 16 Jul 09
yummy_mummy
says...
1:00pm Thu 16 Jul 09
Avid-reader wrote:Why does it not concern them?
Oh i'm sorry, i forgot you were from the Health and Safety Executive or part of the incident investigation team. Who do you think you are, 'trying to get to the bottom of a serious issue!? What has this got to do with you or anyone on this page? Nothing! This whole page is unconstructive with people blabbering on about something which does not concern them.
Is this open, public forum? Yes. Do they have informed knowledge on this topic? Yes. Are there comments constructive and informative? Yes.
I, for one, know nothing on this subject but the views and opinions of others posting here have been nothing but interesting and thought provoking, so may I suggest that you keep your opinions to yourself.
Wishing the injured man a very speedy recovery.
Redback
says...
4:21pm Thu 16 Jul 09
I knew virtually nothing about dock workings, but have learnt a great deal more than I did from reading comments from current and former workers on these pages.
Someone has been seriously injured, and those that are or were involved in the industry want to know why.
The discussion has been level headed and informative, so I really can't see what your problem is.
Ocean Village resident says...
12:43pm Wed 15 Jul 09