Operators warned over danger of uncontrolled crusher buckets.
We are receiving exclusive reports of an incident in Italy in which an excavator equipped with a crusher bucket effectively started to eat its own undercarriage.
The incident happened in the city of Ingannare during the demolition of a former spaghetti harvesting plant. According to onlookers, the crusher bucket was processing concrete mixed with steel reinforcing bar when the incident happened.
“The bucket was eating its way through the concrete when it suddenly picked up a piece of rebar that was attached to the excavator’s undercarriage,” one site worker says. “Before we could even shout for the operator to stop, the bucket had munched the rebar and started to eat the machine’s undercarriage.”
Operator Olaf Pirlo – who was unhurt in the incident – says that the first he knew something was wrong was when he saw his fellow workers running towards him. “By then it was too late,” he says. “The bucket was eating the steel tracks and spitting out swarf. It was insatiable. With hindsight, I should have shut the machine down but I panicked because I thought it would eat the cab as well.”
Thankfully, the excavator ran out of diesel before the rampant bucket turned on the slew ring and upper-structure. “I have never been so grateful for forgetting to top up the tank,” Pirlo says. “We were just watching the machine devour itself.”
The unnamed manufacturer of the crusher bucket was unavailable for comment.
