The following are translations from German newspapers about the Q/B accident.
“Suddenly I heard a crack”
Heavy-load crane comes down on shell of building / For a 27-year-old women any help comes too late / Helpers are taken care of psychologically
By our editorial employee Bertram Bähr
Viernheim. 70 solid planks, each of them 4.50 meters long: The crane-operator wants to transport them over the timberwork of the shell. The crane comes down, and the nearly completely extended jib – measuring some 30 meters – comes down onto the timberwork and the brick wall, and injures two 21- and 23-year-old workers seriously. The planks come down onto a 27-year-old woman. She is immediately dead (we reported).
“My friend just drove up with his car when it happened”, a resident told. The acquaintance, who happened to be an ambulance man, sees what happens, takes his mobile phone, alerts the ambulance control, and sends for helicopter, emergency doctor, and ambulance. Other persons also take their mobiles, several emergency calls are nearly simultaneously received in Heppenheim on this sunny Saturday morning just before 10:00 A.M.
10.38 A.M. A rescue helicopter just takes off from its place to land, an undeveloped site. One of the seriously injured is taken to the accident hospital. Meanwhile, the curious onlookers are discussing: “I saw the crane lying on the roof. Then I heard a crack, and it went through the timberwork.”
Also vehemently discussed is the cause of the accident. After the injured are rescued – several workers and helpers must be taken care of psychologically – an expert of the Federal Office for Health and Safety at Work takes up his activity. “We expect information about the reasons, that led to the tip-over of the crane, from the results found by the expert from Darmstadt and from another independent expert of the DEKRA”, the police announced yesterday.
Back to Saturday morning. “As I see it they intended to celebrate the topping-out ceremony”, a resident said. “They” means Jehovah’s Witnesses, who are building their new community center in the “Bannholzgraben”: site 1,200 square meters, useable floor space 350 square meters, two floors, the actual meeting hall: 140 seats, plus adjoining rooms like library or conference room.
“We do not celebrate the topping-out ceremony”, the spokesman of the denomination, Peter Foerster, says. “But we intended to have an opening ceremony in December. Therefore numerous helpers from the whole region – from the Vorderpfalz to the Odenwald, from Karlsruhe to Frankfurt – had come to Viernheim since the begin of September – preferably on weekends – in order to make progress with the building. “They are experienced experts from all professions who volunteer to work there”, Foerster says.
Wolfgang Mueller, circuit fire chief, estimates the number of those who are busy at the building site this Saturday at 250 workers and craftsmen. Many of them still have their breakfast in the catering tent when the crane comes down just before 10:00 A.M. “Much might have happened”, one of the helpers shakes his head. The damage amounts to DM 160,000 [US-$ 70,000].
On his way to a land register rectification, First Town Councillor Martin Ringhof passes the “Bannholzgraben” and cannot believe what he sees. He is as aghast as Mayor Matthias Baaß, who arrives at the scene of the accident just some minutes later.
Meanwhile the clearance work begins. Two cranes must be brought to the place of the accident to recover the accident gadget. At 3:00 P.M., five hours after the terrible event, this task is finished, too.
Peter Foerster recalls the good atmosphere that prevailed at the building site during the last weeks, the “joyful team”. This is abruptly over.
Fire brigade gets insulted
© Mannheimer Morgen – 10-29-2001
Why did the crane come down onto a shell at Viernheim?
Deep dismay after death of a young woman from Heidelberg
By our editorial employee Bertram Bähr
Viernheim. There are still no new findings as to the cause of the severe accident that took place on Saturday morning in the “Bannholzgraben”, a new district in Viernheim. It is still unclear why a heavy-load crane came down onto the shell of a great building, killed a 27-year-old woman from Heidelberg, and injured two men at the age of 23 and 21 seriously (we reported).
At the time of the terrible accident, some 250 workers and craftsmen were busy at the building site, as Wolfgang Mueller, the circuit fire chief said. They were nearly without exception members of the denomination of Jehovah’s Witnesses, who put up the future community center in Viernheim in neighbourly help. The fellow believers – brothers and sisters – come from the whole region from Karlsruhe to Frankfurt, from Odenwald to the Vorderpfalz.
On Saturday morning, numerous curious onlookers hurried to the site to see the devastation the crane had caused, and to watch the accident helpers with their difficult task. This gave also rise to ugly scenes, when for example a man insulted the firemen, because they did not want him to enter the site where a young woman from Heidelberg had been killed. She had been struck dead by the heavy stack of wood which the crane had loaded. The firemen gathered the bloodstained wood together and were then accused that they surely wanted to get free firewood.
The clearance work lasted until late in the afternoon; two cranes were necessary to re-erect the accident gadget. The opening ceremony for the community center – scheduled for December – has receded into the distance.
© Mannheimer Morgen – 10-29-2001
The cause of the accident continues to be unclear
After the crane accident in Viernheim: Two seriously injured on the road to recovery
By our editorial employees Lothar Zuther and Sigrid Ditsch
Viernheim. The good news first: Both men, at the age of 21 and 33, who were seriously injured in an accident with a heavy-load crane in the Viernheim undeveloped site “Bannholzgraben” (we reported), are out of danger. “They have left the critical condition, their condition is now stable”, a relieved Peter Foerster yesterday said. He is the spokesman of the denomination of Jehovah’s Witnesses, who put up a new community center in Viernheim in neighbourly help. A 27-year-old woman from Heidelberg had been killed.
The 24-ton vehicle has a lifting capacity of 35 tons. It had tipped over, and its nearly completely extended jib of 30 meters had come down onto the timberwork of the shell. Police and public prosecutor still were not able yesterday to give any information about the cause of the accident. An inspection of the confiscated motorcrane by an expert of the DEKRA (Deutscher Kraftfahrzeugüberwachungsverein – German Association for the Control of Motor Vehicles) is supposed to give further information about the cause of the accident. The expert will examine whether there had been a technical defect, an operation mistake or a material defect, or whether safety rules had been neglected. In an interview with our newspaper, Volker Degenhardt, the managing director of Weiland, the Lampertheim crane company, expressed his regret about the accident. There has never been an accident with such serious consequences in the 30 years the company exists.
However, in that region already several crane accidents had created a great stir. Thus in March 1997 an 68-year-old woman had been struck dead in her garden in Hochdorf near Ludwigshafen by an overturning crane. At the begin of 2000, a crane had crushed to death a 43-year-old locksmith during his work in Groß-Rohrheim. Three workers were killed August 1999, when a crane came down in a trading estate near Frankfurter. From the catering building of a chemical company, which was completely destroyed by a crane, six persons could escape in the last moment.
© Mannheimer Morgen – 10-30-2001
The two seriously injured are doing better
Shock about the crane accident still persisting / Experts searching for the cause
Viernheim. The shock is still persisting. Even two days after the serious accident in the „Bannholzgraben", where the jib of a motor crane came down onto the shell of the community center of the denomination of Jehovah’s Witnesses in the Gro-Harlem-Brundtland-Avenue, there is still dismay among the involved persons. As repeatedly reported, a 27-year-old woman was killed and two workers at the age of 21 and 23 were seriously injured. Both men, who were flown to the ambulance clinics at Frankfurt and Oggersheim in an rescue helicopter, are doing better meanwhile, as Peter Foerster, spokesman of Jehovah’s Witnesses, confirmed yesterday, when he was inquired by the daily Südhessen Morgen: “They are out of danger.” Foerster was not able to tell yesterday what will happen with the shell now. The denomination will discuss this in the next days. The established objective to open the building officially in mid-December, will probably be postponed for the next year. For the time being, it must be awaited what the authorities will say. “The department of building inspection will have to examine whether supporting walls got some hidden damage”, Foerster stressed. He also explicitly thanked the rescue teams, the firemen, and the police for having been quickly at the site of the accident and for having worked without friction. This was especially true for the care for the persons with a shock and for the willingness of the neighbours and residents to help.
The press officer of the public prosecutor at Darmstadt, Gerd Neuber, declared yesterday that investigations because of death through negligence and injury through negligence were taken up. Neuber could not say more about the sequence of the events of the accident; first an independent report must be awaited.
Such report will be drawn up by an expert of the DEKRA (Deutscher Kraftfahrzeugüberwachungsverein – German Association for the Control of Motor Vehicles), as an officer of the police authority at Darmstadt said. DEKRA spokesman Uwe Werner (Stuttgart) did not want to give details yesterday, since this was a pending trial. They would work together with the police and the public prosecutor. An expert for crane accidents will examine whether there had been a technical defect, an operation mistake or a material defect, or whether safety rules had been neglected.
Volker Degenhardt, the managing director of Weiland, the Lampertheim crane company, expressed his regret about the accident. He did not want, however, to give any statements as to the cause of the accident “in the present situation.”
© Mannheimer Morgen – 10-30-2001
