A Port of Milwaukee crane operator was hurt on the job in a recent accident. The candidate for workers’ compensation benefits may have been a victim of a windy day, according to initial reports from police and workplace accident investigators.
The deputy chief of the Milwaukee Fire Department said the emergency call came in just before 9:00 a.m. on a Tuesday. Milwaukee police and the Heavy Urban Rescue Team, also known as HURT, were dispatched to Port of Milwaukee’s cargo Terminal 2.
Reports say the crane operator was in the process of moving the crane on South Lincoln Memorial Drive from Terminal 2 below the Hoan Bridge to cargo Terminal 3, when the accident occurred. The worker was lowering a boom attached to the crane when a piece of equipment struck him.
The 45-year-old employee fell about eight feet when he was knocked off the crane platform to another section of the crane below. Emergency responders say the worker was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries to his elbow and shoulder. A second supervising port employee, who was nearby when the on-the-job accident happened, was not struck or hurt.
Members of the HURT unit were forced to perform an indirect rescue with a ladder extension up to the crane. The ladder was used as a support to slide the injured worker’s stretcher down toward a waiting ambulance.
How much influence, if any, winds at the Port of Milwaukee may have had on the workplace accident is being studied as part of the ongoing investigation.
Source: todaystmj4.com, “Injured worker rescued after crane accident at Port of Milwaukee,” Jay Sorgi, Nov. 29, 2011
