Accident Costs Owners of Mobile Crane 1722
Page 69
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
AN accident in which the jib of a mobile crane pierced the top deck of a trolleybus and killed a passenger, resulted in the crane owners being ordered to pay £722 5s. 6d, in damages at Nottinghamshire Assizes, last week.
Frank Berry, Ltd., Leicester, were ordered to pay £300 to the dead man's sister-in-law, Miss Constance Margaret Blakely, of Stockport, acting as executrix for his deceased widow. They also had to pay £422 5s. 6d. to Nottingham Corporation for repairs to the bus and general damages.
The accident happened on August 27, 1957, at a road junction in Nottingham while the bus was travelling along the main road and the mobile crane was stationary waiting to enter the road.
The judge said that although the jib of the crane was protruding 6 ft. into the main road, the bus driver could not see it because it blended with a background of similarly coloured houses. In any ease, the driver could not be expected to be looking for obstacles 11 ft. above the ground.
Tests had shown that the jib was invisible to the bus driver when he got within 76 ft. of it. Only when he was more than 135 ft. away could he see the
full depth of the jib. At the time of the accident the driver's view had been obscured by a van until he was in the "blind area."
The judge added that the crane driver had been given an impossible job to do. There should have been a flashing signal fitted to the jib to indicate its presence clearly, or a mate should have been provided to precede the vehicle when it was crossing a stream of traffic.
Commenting on Nottingham Corporation's claim for damages on the ground that they were deprived of the bus for 116 days, Mr, Justice Stable said: "The corporation are not a penny poorer."