The daily Astorian., April 30, 2019, Page A5, Image 5

A5
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, APRIL 30, 2019
Missing pins possibly caused Seattle crane collapse
By GENE JOHNSON
Associated Press
SEATTLE — It appears work-
ers who were disassembling a con-
struction crane had prematurely
removed pins securing the sections
of the crane’s mast to each other,
and that could explain why it top-
pled Saturday, killing four people,
experts said.
Crane accident investigator
Tom Barth said Monday based on
videos of the Seattle crane collapse
that “if the pins had been in, that
crane would not have fallen over.”
The crane’s mast fell over
on Saturday afternoon as work-
ers were taking it apart. Sections
landed on top of the new Goo-
gle building where it had been
used and on traffi c below, strik-
ing six vehicles. Two ironworkers
on the crane were killed, as were
two people in cars — a retired city
employee and a college freshman.
Four others were injured.
“The reason this tower fell
over is ironworkers and the people
working on it did not follow the
manufacturer’s instructions for dis-
assembling the crane,” Barth said.
Barth, who has been a tower
crane operator, inspector and acci-
dent investigator for 38 years, said
the only safe way to disassemble a
tower crane is to do it by sections.
First, a line from another crane
is secured to the top of the section
being removed. Only then do work-
ers remove the bolts that secure the
section being removed to the one
below it. The second crane lowers
the section, Barth said.
Salmon
farm fi ned
for pen
collapse
The videos, including one from
a dash camera in a car approaching
as the crane fell, appear to show
the sections of the tower crane sep-
arating cleanly, indicating the pins
had likely been removed early, said
Dave Kwass, a trial attorney who
handles crane accident lawsuits.
“Where I would be starting as
an investigator is getting a better
grasp of what these two ironwork-
ers who tragically were killed may
have done in removing the pins,”
Kwass said. “What I’m seeing is a
crane that looks as though the pins
were popped all the way down to
the pedestal section.”
Kwass also suggested that the
shifting weight of the workers at
the top of the mast as they tried to
grab the wind-swayed hook and
line from the other crane might
have helped push the mast over.
Early pin removal was blamed
after a tower crane mast collapsed
during disassembly in Dallas in
2012, killing two workers. Terry
McGettigan, a tower crane special-
ist in Seattle, declined to comment
on Saturday’s crash, but he wrote a
paper on the Dallas collapse warn-
ing about the danger of taking
shortcuts by loosening or remov-
ing the bolts in advance.
The Iron Workers Union Local
29 based in Portland, and Local 86,
in Seattle, represented the work-
ers who died and did not respond
to requests for comment Monday.
Washington Department of
Labor and Industries inspectors fi n-
ished their work at the scene Mon-
day, said Tim Church, a depart-
ment spokesman. He said it was
Card not required in Albertsons
WINNER
Redmond, OR
By ROBERT
MITTENDORF
The Bellingham Herald
A salmon-farming oper-
ation will pay $332,000 in
fi nes for releasing a quar-
ter-million Atlantic salmon
into the northern Puget
Sound when one of its fl oat-
ing pens collapsed in August
2017.
A statement Monday
from the state Department
of Ecology said that Cooke
Aquaculture had dropped its
appeal and agreed to pay the
full fi ne.
“As a result of the inves-
tigation, Ecology fi ned
Cooke for water quality per-
mit violations that include:
poor net cleaning and main-
tenance, failing to follow
required protocol for repairs
and insuffi cient attention
to structural engineering,”
Ecology’s Colleen Keltz
said in an email.
Ecology offi cials said
several government agen-
cies investigated the inci-
dent near Cypress Island,
about 10 miles southwest of
Bellingham.
Lummi Nation fi sher-
men discovered the inci-
dent when they started fi nd-
ing Atlantic salmon in their
nets for C hinook, according
to published reports.
To combat a potential
ecological disaster, state
Department of Fish & Wild-
life offi cials issued an open
season for Atlantic salmon,
waiving limits on size and
number of fi sh for anyone
with a valid license.
The state lists Atlan-
tic salmon as an invasive
species that competes with
native fi sh and can spread
disease.
Cooke Aquaculture offi -
cials blamed the collapse of
the pen on unusually high
tides and swift currents
caused by the solar eclipse,
but the environmental group
Puget Soundkeeper Alliance
disputed that claim, accord-
ing to a Bellingham Herald
story and other reports.
In 2018, the state Legis-
lature approved a measure
to end farming of non-na-
tive fi sh in Washington’s
marine waters, effective in
2022.
Cooke still has four
salmon pens near Hope
Island, east of Deception
Pass, and in Rich Passage,
near Bainbridge Island,
Ecology said.
“Ecology also is updating
and strengthening the water
quality permits for Cooke’s
four remaining fl oating fi sh
pens,” Keltz said.
As such, Cooke Aqua-
culture will face increas-
ing state scrutiny, includ-
ing video monitoring of
net pens and inspections
to assess structural integ-
rity, cleanliness and mainte-
nance, Ecology said.
Monday’s
settlement
said that $265,600 of the
penalty will go to an envi-
ronmental project related to
regional salmon enhance-
ments or habitat restoration,
and the remaining $66,400
will go to the state’s Coastal
Protection Fund.
too early to speculate on a cause.
The ironworkers who died
were identifi ed by their unions as
Andrew Yoder, 31, of Washing-
ton state, and Travis Corbet, 33, of
Oregon. Corbet’s wife, Samantha
Corbet, told Seattle television sta-
tions that her husband had served
in the Marine Corps for fi ve years
before becoming an ironworker.
They married last year and
planned to go on their honeymoon
in June.
Also killed were Seattle Pacifi c
University freshman Sarah Wong,
19, and Alan Justad, 71, who
retired in 2014 as deputy director
of Seattle’s Department of Plan-
ning and Development.
In a written statement, Mayor
Jenny Durkan called Justad “a true
public servant.”
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PG 1,Common
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