You don’t have to look that far back in time to find many examples of crane collapses in Florida. A crane collapse in Boynton Beach killed two construction workers in March 2022. A Pensacola Beach crane collapsed a month later, but thankfully didn’t result in any injuries or deaths. A construction worker involved in an October 2021 crane collapse in Orlando wasn’t so lucky.

Even when these incidents don’t result in injuries, they nearly always cause severe property damage and may result in construction delays of months.

Why Do Crane Accidents Happen?

You can get a sense for the immensity of cranes simply by standing next to one. Cranes are vital pieces of machinery for a variety of industries, including shipping, construction and home services businesses, such as roofing and HVAC. Any large machine that lifts extremely heavy loads of materials is inherently dangerous since those materials can do massive amounts of damage if they fall.

In the best-case scenario, people caught underneath falling debris on a worksite will only suffer life-altering catastrophic injuries. Unfortunately, injuries caused by materials dropped by cranes are frequently fatal.

Improperly secured loads are just one reason crane accidents happen. There are many others.

Buckling and Collapsing Cranes

Cranes are excellent teaching tools for physics and math classes because they’re real-world examples of a variety of physical laws and simple machines, like levers, pulleys and fulcrums. As any physics student can tell you, imbalances in crane formulas can result in toppling.

Cranes are also designed and constructed with strict weight limits. If a load exceeds the weight limit, the crane could buckle or collapse. While construction workers and crane operators tend to be extremely cognizant of limits and avoid overloading cranes, mistakes can happen.

For example, it’s easy to imagine a scenario in which the weight of a roof-mounted air conditioner unit is inaccurately communicated to a crane operator and their team. They might not realize the air conditioner is too heavy to safely lift until it’s too late.

Assembly Mistakes

Cranes are complicated pieces of machinery. If a crane is not put together correctly, the foundation isn’t adequately anchored or the counterweight isn’t properly set, loads may become unstable or the crane itself may simply collapse.

The massive cranes built to assemble skyscrapers pose a huge risk for injury and property damage if mistakes are made during assembly, especially since they’re frequently placed in the middle of bustling metro areas.

Poor Training

You might be surprised at how much crane operators are paid. They’re frequently pulling in the largest salary of anyone on a jobsite. That’s because their job requires specialized skills. The consequences of them making a mistake are so catastrophic that mistakes are essentially unacceptable in any circumstance. Crane operators must pass several OSHA safety courses, undergo extensive training and exercise extraordinary patience and attentiveness. A crane operator with poor training may cause severe injuries or even the deaths of coworkers.

Parts or Component Failures

No piece of equipment or machinery component lasts forever. Component failures in a crane can lead to horrible accident scenarios, which is why they generally undergo regular, rigorous maintenance.

Not every crane rental company, construction company or site manager maintains the highest standards of maintenance excellence. Even a crane that is properly maintained could suffer a failure due to a defective part.

Inadequate Inspections

Construction workers, project managers and property owners are always under deadline pressure. There are severe and costly consequences for missing deadlines, and sometimes there are bonus incentives for completing jobs ahead of schedule.

Rushing can lead to inattentiveness or cutting corners, including poor inspections. A crane that isn’t adequately inspected is more likely to suffer one of the previously mentioned failures, like a mechanical failure or assembly mistake.

Finding a Crane Injury Lawyer in Florida

Crane injury lawyers should ideally be familiar with a variety of areas of personal injury law, including catastrophic injuries, like spinal injuries or brain injuries, construction injuries and wrongful death.

Many people who are injured in crane accidents never make full recoveries. They may be entitled to significant damages for disabilities, or their surviving family members may be entitled to large wrongful death claim payments.

The only good news is crane injury victims are generally covered by large commercial liability policies. That means construction companies or property owners should have the money to cover high medical bills, pain and suffering and lost future wages.

Not every personal injury lawyer in Florida has experience with crane accidents. When you’re interviewing personal injury attorneys, make sure to ask why they’re qualified to handle crane accident injury cases.