Effect ‘not great’

Press, 12 July 1985, Page 1

Effect ‘not great’

Container traffic through Lyttelton is unlikely to be greatly affected by yesterday’s accident. The manager of the container terminal, Mr Bill Siddall, said the next three ships due at the terminal all had on-board cranes and would be able to be worked. After that the Samba crane, which had been brought in,to replace the portainer crane wrecked in February, should be ready for use. Mr Siddall said it was too early last evening to give an estimate of the cost of the damage, or to say what had gone wrong with the crane.

Little damage appeared to have been done to the ship but the boom of the crane was wrecked.

“I am just so pleased that no-one was hurt,” he said. Men were working last night to clear the ship of the fallen boom.

The general manager of the Lyttelton Harbour Board, Mr lan Brokenshire, said the accident scene was floodlit.

The boom was being cut away from the rest of the crane so that it could be lifted by other cranes. Titan cranes were holding the rest of the Skyhorse crane steady and the board’s floating crane Rapaki was working from the seaward side of the ship. Marine Division engineers were inspecting the scene last evening but no-one at that stage knew what had caused the accident. “The crane wasn’t under load at the time. It was just one of those things that happen,” said Mr Brokenshire.

Yesterday’s accident and the toppling of the portainer crane in February could not be compared, he said. They were two completely different types of accident. A ship had knocked the portainer crane but the Skyhorse was being moved and not under load.

There were no safety procedures that could be brought in because of the accident, nor were any procedures breached during yesterday’s accident, he said.

It was unlikely the Samba crane could be brought into use before its expected commissioning date in about two weeks.