Nightmare Video: Watch What Happens When A Massive Crane Loses Its Brakes On A Hill


Nightmare Video: Watch What Happens When A Massive Crane Loses Its Brakes On A Hill

(By Greg Rourke) – Once again, cranes scare me. They are called upon on a daily basis to do the seemingly impossible. Most of the time all goes as planned. But then  again, sometimes they go terribly wrong, even before they are put to work.

Here we have what looks like a house moving in progress. A big all terrain crane is attempting to maneuver into position, but we have a problem. The street is on a small hill, and the crane is unable to stop. Have you ever heard the phrase “When all you have is a hammer, all your problems become nails”?
All the workers have handy is some wood blocks, so they try to get them under the tires. No help. The crane picks up speed, they gamely keep trying the wood, to no avail. It keeps picking up speed, takes out a few utility poles, and heads through an intersection and somehow doesn’t hit anyone. Finally the crane hits a railroad bridge abutment, further disaster is averted.
How or why did this happen? I wasn’t there, and likely neither were you. I’m assuming the engine stalled, which could have resulted in total loss of control. The crane likely has a torque converter in front of a manual gearbox, and simply throwing it into reverse wouldn’t have been a problem. A running engine also would have allowed the outriggers to be lowered. The brakes may have relied on the hydraulics operating, again no help with a dead engine. The parking brake might have been  a disc on the driveshaft, with a mechanical caliper and hockey puck sized pads. Even when properly serviced it might not have been enough, and as a former lowboy driver I can tell you that type of brake was seldom in good order. A dead engine would also make steering very difficult, if not impossible.
Luckily it appears there were no injuries, with the possible exception of the operators overpuckered sphincter.


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