BRO TEX INTERNATIONAL METALS, LLC

Operator sustains multiple injuries when crane overturns

At 1:30 p.m. on April 23, 2018, an operator was using a Manitowoc 4100W lattice boom crawler crane to unload 20 ton sections of anchor chain from an offshore supply vessel to the shore as part of a shipbreaking operation. The operator swung a load to the left with a crane and then drove forward. Upon applying the brakes, the boom began to fall forward away from the operator, the crane began to topple forward, and continued to flip upside down in a forward direction. The operator jumped out the cab door to the ground as the crane was tipping forward. The operator was struck and knocked into the water between the offshore supply vessel and the corrugated steel bulkhead pier. The operator sustained broken teeth/dentures, bilateral superior and inferior pubic rami fractures, and right sacral fractures. Other injuries included a number of vertebral disk herniation in the L3-L5 and L5-S1 areas, and contact on bilateral L4 nerve roots. on bilateral L4 nerve roots.