North Sydney crane collapse leaves workers dangling from building

At least one worker suffered broken bones in the hair-raising incident and all three were recovering in the Royal North Shore Hospital on Sunday afternoon.

Crane collapses in North Sydney
RAW VISION: A damaged crane dangles from atop a high-rise building in North Sydney.

An element of danger still remains at the North Sydney site as authorities grapple with how best to dismantle the dangling crane piece by piece.

“It is a very, very dangerous process and it needs to be analysed very carefully,” CFMEU NSW secretary Brian Park said from the North Sydney site.

“This could be equal to, if not worse than, the damage that has already been done.”

A team from Titan Cranes, which is also involved in the construction project at Barangaroo, was at the Meriton building site on Arthur Street on Sunday to deconstruct a tower crane as the project neared completion.

Something “has gone amiss” about 11.30am with the riggers involved in the process, Mr Parker said.

The crane’s jib bent, collapsed and hit the side of the building.

The riggers – aged 24, 28 and 36 – who were working within the crane’s boom, were trapped and dangled precariously about 60 metres above the ground.

“They had their safety equipment on and lanyards so when the boom came down they were strapped on,” NSW Fire and Rescue Superintendent Adam Dewberry said.

The 24-year-old worker freed himself and climbed on to the building’s roof.

Operators of a smaller crane at the same site then managed to lower down a metal bucket to their trapped colleagues, who were lowered to the ground.

Mr Parker said it looked like mechanical failure rather than human error was at play.

However, an initial look at the collapsed crane showed nothing obvious to indicate what exactly that failure was.

“The unfortunate thing here is we don’t know exactly what has gone wrong,” Mr Parker said.

“The workers, once they are in the right state of mind and have dealt with their injuries, will be spoken with [to ascertain what went wrong].”

“We are very pleased that it seems to be all the workers had their safety gear in place. This could have been a fatality.”

While work on the Meriton project has been limited to mostly weekdays, the deconstruction of cranes always occurred on a weekend, he added.

Once the injured riggers reached the ground, where paramedics and fire crews were waiting, they struggled to walk.

“They must have had reasonably serious [injuries] because they were completely immobile,” said Aaron Patrick, a Fairfax Media employee, who lives next door.

The 28-year-old man suffered chest, spinal and pelvic injuries and was flown to hospital in a serious condition.

The 24-year-old and 36-year-old were also taken to hospital with injuries. All three were in a stable condition on Sunday evening.

A SafeWork NSW spokeswoman said two inspectors would be sent to the site to focus on whether there had been any work, health and safety breaches.