Arts Center Crane Topples, Kills One

By Dan Verbeck , KCUR news

Kansas City, Mo. – A construction crane tipped backward, sending two workers to the ground, fifty or more feet below. One man died, the other was seriously hurt. The accident happened at the construction site of the new Kansas City Performing Arts Center, immediately south of the downtown district.

The man killed was 35 years old and a resident of Lees Summit, Missouri, according to police officer Darrin Snapp. The man who survived with serious injuries lives in Grain Valley, Missouri. Snapp said both were employed by Midwest Steel Company, a subcontractor to J. E. Dunn general contractors.

The portable crane pivots on four rubber tires. Early estimates put the height of the basket at a hundred feet or less. Snapp said the basket never touched the ground, rather the boom to which it was attached slammed into a construction trailer parked along 16th street. The basket stopped and bounced, eight feet off the pavement. Snapp said the two men were thrown out.

Investigators from the Occpuational Safety and Health Administration were examining the lift , attempting to learn what caused the malfunction.