Crane accident Demolition works in front of Bonn station halted
Bonn · After the crane accident on Saturday, demolition works have been halted while police investigate the circumstances of the accident. The city utilities company, SWB, will replace the overhead tram lines from Sunday.
The demolition works in front of Bonn main train station have been halted for the moment after the crane accident on Saturday afternoon. Christian van de Loo, site manager for the construction company Ten Brinke, could not say on Monday when the works would continue. In the meantime, the police, in consultation with the Bonn public prosecutors office, are investigating whether the site was subject to dangerous building practices.
In view of the current enquiries, police spokesman Robert Scholten did not want to say anything specific about the circumstances of the accident. “We are investigating why the crane tipped over and questioning witnesses about it,” he told the GA. The police have also informed the Cologne district government. However, spokesman Dirk Schneemann said the Department for Occupational Work Safety would not take part in the further investigations as no employee had been injured.
The crane, belonging to the Bornheim heavy transport company Baumann, fell from the construction site towards the train station at around 2.30pm on Saturday. The boom smashed into the station roof. No one was injured, as police said the street had just been closed to cars, bikes and pedestrians because of the construction works. However, the accident caused traffic problems until late into the evening.
As to why the accident happened, van de Loo said: “We are still examining this.” He also said Ten Brinke had a contract for the demolition with the Dutch company Hofstede. They had not responded to GA questions at the time of going to print. Sabine Baumann, managing director of the Baumann company, said after talking to the crane driver: “We received an instruction to shield the exterior of the construction site with a dust protection sheet.”
Three tonne matting unbalanced crane
Her employee put the sheet, which weighs more than three tonnes and is made from a synthetic/steel mix, in the correct position from outside the driver’s cabin by remote control. Then a piece of concrete fell from the demolition excavator, which does not belong to Baumann, into the protective sheet. The concrete, which weighed several tonnes, then unbalanced the 36 metre high, 48 tonne crane, which tipped over. This also coincides with a statement given to the GA by a Deutsche Bahn employee, who said the excavator had suddenly opened its claw and let a piece of construction material fall.
Cost of damage caused still not known
It took until Saturday evening to secure the site of the accident. The mobile crane was driven to the Bornheim depot, where Baumann said it was being examined by a technician. A spokesperson for the railways spoke of “damage that was not serious.” The boom had only damaged roof tiles and underlying wooden slats over an area of about two square metres.
The heavy mats fell across the street Am Hauptbahnhof. They did not break the tram overhead cables for Lines 61 and 62 but only pushed them downwards. City utilities company spokesman, Werner Schui, said on Monday: “Nevertheless, we will replace the four lines – two for each direction – as a precaution.” Schui said technicians would replace 500 metres of the lines from next Sunday on four consecutive nights during off-peak hours. On Monday it was still not known the cost of the damage or who would pay.
(Original text: Philipp Königs. Translated by Kate Carey)
