{"id":75344,"date":"2026-08-19T04:21:19","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T04:21:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/75344\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T04:21:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T04:21:19","slug":"cranes-australia-says-photos-show-ratchet-straps-used-to-carry-glass-panels-at-crane-accident","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/75344\/","title":{"rendered":"Cranes Australia says photos show ratchet straps used to carry glass panels at crane accident"},"content":{"rendered":"

A national crane inspection company says images from a government-funded worksite in Glenroy, Albury, show a “severe breach” of safety protocols, after glass panels fell during a lift and seriously injured workers last week<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The ABC understands two heavy packets of glass panels fell from a crane onto the workers, leaving one man in his 20s in a critical condition at the Royal Melbourne Hospital.<\/p>\n

A second man in his 20s was taken to Albury Base Hospital with serious but stable leg and back injuries, and a third worker escaped with minor injuries.<\/p>\n

The union, CFMEU, said the worker from crane company WA Pickles was critically injured and a Padel Concepts labourer sustained a leg fracture.<\/p>\n

WA Pickles and Padel Concepts were contacted for comment.<\/p>\n

SafeWork New South Wales said it responded to the incident, but it would not comment while inquiries were ongoing.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Three men were injured in a workplace accident near Albury. (ABC News Philippe Perez)<\/p>\n

‘Almost unbelievable disregard’<\/p>\n

Samuel Ho, director of Cranes Australia, which conducts independent engineering inspections on crane safety and compliance, said the images showed standard cargo tie-down ratchet straps being used as “makeshift lifting loops” to move the panels.<\/p>\n

“The images depict a severe breach of rigging and crane safety protocols,” Mr Ho said.<\/p>\n

Mr Ho said the straps in the images lacked the structural properties required to safely support a suspended load.<\/p>\n

“It is comical in a dark sense because using basic transport tie-downs to crane-lift heavy materials reflects such a fundamental, almost unbelievable disregard for basic site safety and high-risk work licensing rules,” Mr Ho said.\"Two<\/p>\n

The glass frames that fell on the workers. (Supplied: CFMEU)<\/p>\n

‘Worker lives at extreme risk’<\/p>\n

Mr Ho said certified synthetic webbing, or chain or wire-rope slings, should have been used for the lift, alongside safety latched hooks or rated shackles.<\/p>\n

He said lifting equipment should have featured load-limit markings, appropriate protections on sharp edges and been attached to engineered lifting points.<\/p>\n

“Bypassing certified gear to save time or effort inevitably leads to dropped loads and places worker lives at extreme risk,” Mr Ho said.’Entirely preventable’<\/p>\n

The ABC understands the site was being developed for padel and futsal facilities and funded through NSW Sport and Recreation.<\/p>\n

NSW Sport and Recreation declined to comment.<\/p>\n

\"Woman<\/p>\n

Karma Lord says the CFMEU is seeking more details. (Supplied: CFMEU)<\/p>\n

The CFMEU said it had asked for crane inspection records, lift plans and other safety documents from companies involved in the project.<\/p>\n

CFMEU New South Wales branch executive Karma Lord said the accident was “entirely preventable”.<\/p>\n

“A three-tonne glass pack with no rated lifting points should never have gone near a crane,” she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A national crane inspection company says images from a government-funded worksite in Glenroy, Albury, show a “severe breach”…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":75345,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22,21,1003,110586,11153,42874,9705,110587,65271,110588,17331],"class_list":["post-75344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-cfmeu","tag-crane","tag-futsal","tag-glass","tag-injury","tag-padel","tag-safework","tag-wa-pickles","tag-work"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75344\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}