Crane crash
A ‘‘freak accident’’ saw a crane topple on to the roof of a New Plymouth house.
An investigation will now take place into the cause of yesterday’s accident in Truby King St, Merrilands.
Two women were in the house at the time, but nobody was injured.
The crane was being used to build a house for Platinum Homes Taranaki when it keeled over about 11.30am. The truck carrying the crane smashed into the neighbouring fence, while the extended boom came to rest on the roof of the next door property, punching holes in the roof and destroying the chimney.
‘‘It was just a freak accident,’’ Jim Martin, director of Platinum Homes in Taranaki, said.
Martin said the crane was lifting roof trusses over existing Truby King St homes when something went wrong. ‘‘The good thing is no-one was injured.’’
Martin said the crane owner would have done hundreds of similar jobs without incident, while he had built around 600 houses and had never seen anything like this happen.
‘‘He’s done everything he could,’’ Martin said. ‘‘It was just a mishap. There’s always a day that it happens.’’
The crane is owned by New Plymouth firm Q-Transport, run by Fred and Tina Quilter.
Fred Quilter said he went straight to the scene. A larger crane was brought in to lift the fallen machinery off the house mid-afternoon.
Quilter said he did not know what had caused the crane to topple over, but an inquiry would take place.
He said he had tried to help the people in the neighbouring home and sort out their insurance.
The crane had left a ‘‘couple of holes in the roof’’, he said.
‘‘It’s pushed the chimney through the roof and into the living room.’’
The occupants of the house declined to speak about what had happened.
It is understood that they have had to move into temporary accommodation and Quilter said the power to the house had been turned off.
Although the area was cordoned off to traffic, people arrived in the street during the afternoon to see the damage for themselves.