On the morning of Sep 20, a jib of a tower crane collapsed near Kita 7-jo Nishi 27-chome, Chuo-ku, Sapporo. A resident of the neighbourhood said, “Around 8:25 a.m., I heard a ‘boom’ and looked out the window and saw the crane had fallen.”
According to a statement from the contractor, the tower crane’s jib has been secured with wire rope, likely a prevention measure for the cyclone that has arrived in Sapporo one day earlier. The operator could have moved or slew the tower crane with the jib still being secured, causing it to collapse due to tension.
The contractor undertaking the construction, of a new hospital is being built. The maximum instantaneous wind speed in Sapporo was 16.9 meters (8:28 am on the 20th). Although Hokkaido experienced an extratropical cyclone that changed from Typhoon No. 14 (also known as Typhoon Nanmadol) on the 19th night till 20th morning, it does not contribute to the fall of the crane.
According to the police, when the crane was moved while forgetting to remove it from the fixed wire, part of it broke and fell. The broken part fell on the site of the construction site, and no one was injured.
No one was injured in this accident. The construction company is investigating the cause of the accident.
Tower crane collapsed due to Typhoon No. 14
On the same day, the typhoon brought down a tower crane attached to a 19-story apartment building under construction in Korai-cho, Kagoshima City. The crane’s jib broke and fell to the ground.
No one was injured, but the city fire department closed off the area, and 23 residents from 20 households were evacuated.
