Crane splits house in half

A crane weighing more than 100,000 pounds toppled backward and sliced a Santa Rosa home nearly in half as workers attempted to remove a 150-year-old tree. This was the second accident for the family; that same day Michelle McCarthy, the wife, had gotten in a car accident. “I kept telling my husband, ‘Tell me I'm having a really bad, vivid dream,” Michelle McCarthy said. The couple was strongly recommended to cut down the aging and sick tree by an arborist. Workers were finishing up cutting down the tree when the accident happened. “It was a freak situation,” said Rich Kingsborough, owner of Atlas Tree Surgery in Santa Rosa.

Pressdemocrat.com states that "A large section of the tree, which had been connected to the crane, suddenly broke loose from the base of the oak and yanked down hard on the rig. One of the workers was on the tree, cutting the large section loose when it snapped off, catching and yanking down the crane." “It shockloaded the crane,” Kingsborough said. “The boom came crashing down and missed everybody.” The 131-foot-long boom missed the man in the tree by only four feet. Fortunately no one was hurt. OSHA is now investigating the incident.

Sources:
"Crane smashes through Santa Rosa house." Pressdemocrat.com. 16 Nov. 2009. Web. 17 Nov. 2009.
See the full article: http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20091116/ARTICLES/911169936/1349?&tc=autorefresh