Incident Report

Subject:                     4 Dead, 7 Injured in Houston Refinery Crane Collapse 

Date of Email reporting Incident:   Sun 20/07/2008

Report Detail:

HOUSTON -- A hot line has been established for relatives of workers at a Houston Ship Channel plant where the largest mobile crane in the nation collapsed on a tent area, killing four and injuring seven, officials said.  The crane, capable of lifting 800,000 pounds, fell over at a LyondellBasell refinery in southeast Houston about 2 p.m, Roecker said. The casualties were in the area of the crane, but officials still aren't certain whether they were on the crane or under it. Three of the injured were treated and released at the scene, said Houston Fire Department Assistant Chief Omero Longoria. Two severely injured workers were taken by helicopter to Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center hospital and the other injured worker was taken to a hospital by ambulance. The crane, whose exact dimensions were not immediately available, belonged to Louisiana-based company Deep South Crane & Rigging. It was delivered in pieces and assembled on site about a month ago. It was brought in to remove large drums from inside a coking unit whose roof had been cut off to allow the crane access, Roecker said. But the crane was not scheduled to do any work Friday. Roecker said, however, that the crane's engine was idling after it hit the ground.Roecker said he'd seen the crane lift 800,000 pounds during a test run last week, and described it as the nation's largest mobile crane. "This is a traumatic experience for all of us. We have to focus on the safety and health of our employees," Roecker said. About 1,500 contract workers are employed at the refinery, he said. Mattie Graham stood with her husband, Deep South worker Horace Graham, at the plant near the scene of the accident. "I'm thinking about their families. He could have been there today," she said, gesturing to her husband.Roecker said all personnel at the plant were accounted for, and the plant was operating as usual. LyondellBasell's Houston refinery is one of the largest refineries in the U.S. designed to process high-sulfur crude oil. Built in 1918, the 700-acre plant also became one of the first petroleum refineries built on the Houston Ship Channel.The plant has a capacity of 268,000 barrels of crude oil per day, which is transformed into pre-formulated gasoline and ultra low-sulfur diesel. East Texas Crane Academy president Joe Bob Williams, whose company has certified crane operators for Lyondell, said it's unusual for such cranes to fail because of the number of people involved in their maintenance.

"It's really odd for these cranes to have any issues because there are so many eyes looking in," Williams said. Crane safety has been getting extra scrutiny in recent months because of an alarming number of crane-related deaths in places such as New York, Miami and Las Vegas. In New York City, two crane accidents since March have killed nine people -- a greater number than the total deaths from cranes over the past decade. An Associated Press analysis in June found that cities and states have wildly varying rules governing construction cranes, and some have no regulations at all, choosing instead to rely on federal guidelines dating back nearly 40 years that some experts say haven't kept up with technological advances.

Additional Documentation:

http://media.myfoxhouston.com/news/2008-07-18/crane/slides/9.html