Houses damaged in crane drama
A bundle of about 20 steel rods flew down a slope in Sai Kung yesterday when a crane truck lifting the load flipped over.
The crane was lifting the rods at 10.30am at a construction site on top of a Nam Wai slope when it toppled onto a pump room that was being built. Firemen said the pump room stopped the truck sliding down the slope.
But the arm of the crane buckled and collapsed and its end fell onto the roof of a three-storey house on the slope, damaging the tiling.
'The load swayed along the side of the house and hit an air conditioner on the ground level,' Sai Kung fire station officer Cheung Ying-fai said.
The air conditioner fell into a ground-floor bedroom and landed on a bed. No one was hurt.
'The rods then smashed into the security gate of another house and pierced about 60cm into the house. No one was inside,' Mr Cheung said.
The crane operator, 64, escaped injury by jumping out of the cabin.
Buildings Department engineers inspected the two houses and declared them safe.
The Construction Association said guidelines on the use of cranes required contractors to hire maintenance engineers with at least four years' experience and make sure operators were qualified.
The association will hold seminars about the safety guidelines next week. It said some of the guidelines were already in use after two fatal accidents involving cranes last year.
