A Corlette couple were forced to vacate their home on Tuesday after a crane working on a construction site next door rolled and crashed through their backyard.
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Russell Porteus said he and his wife had just sat down to breakfast about 8.15am when they heard a “big crash”.
A crane that had been moving bricks up a driveway to a residential construction site to the rear of the Porteus’ Sergeant Baker Drive home had rolled on its side, crashed through their fence and came to a dangling halt over their pool.
“The whole thing just tipped,” Mr Porteus said.
“We heard this big crash and we ran.
“We thought it was going to come through the wall [to the house].
“It stopped about 4 meters from the house.
“It [was] dangling over the pool.
“There’s a lot of damage to the fence.”
The crane operator had been using a sloped laneway off Sergeant Baker Drive to access a residential construction site to the rear of the Porteus property.
The lane runs directly alongside the Porteus’ home.
No workers or members of the public were injured in the incident.
Police and SafeWork NSW were called to the site on Tuesday morning.
Under work health and safety legislation, SafeWork NSW must be notified if there is a dangerous incident, or one that leads to serious injury, illness or death.
A SafeWork NSW spokesman said an investigation into Tuesday’s Corlette incident is now underway.
“Initial inquiries indicate the crane was positioned on a concrete driveway and was moving a load of bricks when the driveway has given way and the crane has rolled onto its side,” the SafeWork NSW spokesman said.
“A 250-tonne crane will be used to remove the collapsed crane.
“SafeWork NSW has directed the crane owner to have the crane inspected.”
SafeWork’s investigation remains ongoing.
Following the incident, a second larger crane was called in to remove the fallen crane.
Mr Porteus said two further cranes were called to the site on Tuesday afternoon to carry out the recovery operation.
In total, there were three cranes attempting to remove the fallen crane.
“It’s quite a major operation,” Mr Porteus told the Examiner on Tuesday afternoon.
“The crane’s just dangling over the pool – it’s resting on a piece of cement.
“If anything goes wrong, it can knock our wall down.”
Mr Porteus said they had to vacate their home for the duration of the recovery operation due to safety concerns.