Unseen basement claims yet another heavy equipment victim.
There is no question that demolition can be a risky business, and that it often pays to have eyes in the back, side and top of your head while on site. But, despite the risk assessments and site surveys that are today considered the norm, it seems that there is one painfully obvious hazard that remains overlooked all too often – The hidden basement.
We have lost count of the number of times we have been forced to write about an excavator falling into a basement or underground void, purely because someone hadn’t checked out the site properly. And so it is with a mixture of “I told you so” and exasperation that we bring you the latest story of an operator’s apparent determination to work below ground.
An excavator being used to demolish the original St. Clement Catholic School in Cambridge, Ontario tumbled over Thursday morning. There were no injuries in the incident, which is the third construction-related accident in Waterloo Region this week.
The machine was reportedly knocking down a wall of the Duke Street building when the flooring gave way and it fell over.
The driver was able to climb out of the cab and was not hurt.
Read more here.
