A construction worker was taken to hospital with head injuries on 19 January, after a crane collapsed on a South Belfast building site. One end of the horizontal crane left its mooring on the roof of a newly built home in the Danesford Park area, off the Stranmillis Road, and crashed around 30 feet to the ground just after 8am. The man in question was working on the first level of scaffolding which was erected beside the base of the crane, when the metal structure landed on him.
He sustained head and back injuries and was trapped beneath the crane for a period, whilst ten feet in the air on the scaffolding. Fire and ambulance crews attending the scene had to figure out the best way to get the worker down, in a situation they described as "tricky". The man was rushed to hospital, but his injuries were not thought to be life threatening. The construction company operating the site, Spruce Enterprises, declined to comment on the incident until an investigation had been completed, but they did state that the crane in question was owned by a sub-contractor. A spokesman for the Health and Safety Executive Northern Ireland (HSE NI), said a full inquiry had now been launched.
