Man dies after being hit by piece of falling crane in Chiba

How is it that people are allowed to walk under a crane that is being taken apart?

RIP. More negligence at construction sites resulting in death. The company will pay, for sure, but that won't bring the man back to life.

I've seen this scenario many times on construction sites. Guys working and walking under lifted loads. It's just an accident waiting to happen. Many years ago I worked as a crane chaser (dog man) under a crane in a plant. The first rules were, never walk under a load and never lift a load over workers. These seemed pretty straight forward commonsense to me. I guess this is not part of Japanese crane driver's training.

Surly the area in the potential drop zone ought to be cordoned off with staff preventing access to pedestrians. Gross negligence resulting in death.

The first rules were, never walk under a load and never lift a load over workers. ................................ I guess this is not part of Japanese crane driver's training.

Of course, goes without saying. However, from what this article implies, the crane driver probably knew little about it. I would hazard a guess that the old man was taking a shortcut just where he shouldn't have been. 999 times out of a 1000 this would be no problem but not this time.

The company will pay, for sure,

Really? Does anyone know of any precedents for such situations in Japan?

I'm speculating, but my guess is that a few hundred thousand (US$) will be offered in "consolation money", and it will be accepted. Nothing like the multi-million dollar lawsuit for negligence that you would expect to see in some other countries.

a 1 ton piece of metal, youch! I hope he didnt suffer.

Fast death. RIP. Terrible.

@papiguilio @Mytimeisyourtime - unfortunately not so fast. Article said ...pinned to the ground. He was rushed to hospital where he died about an hour later from blood loss.

Does anyone know of any precedents for such situations in Japan? I'm speculating, but my guess is that a few hundred thousand (US$) will be offered in "consolation money", and it will be accepted. Nothing like the multi-million dollar lawsuit for negligence that you would expect to see in some other countries.

These companies carry insurance exactly for cases like this. There will be a large payout, although not on the scale of some countries.

Here's a million-dollar payout for a construction accident:

http://www.japantoday.com/category/crime/view/mother-employer-of-epileptic-crane-driver-ordered-to-pay-compensation-over-fatal-accident

Nessie: That is the mother of driver of the crane that was ordered to pay.

Wow! one hour before he died. It must've seemed like 1000 years.

This is terrible. Mr. Iga must have suffered terribly for an hour.

I guess safety is not #1 at Nippon Steel.

This kind of accident is going to become more common with the Olympics coming up - Japan needs to improve it's work-place safety to that of international standards. The London Olympics were the safest in history - Japan might be a step back, let's hope not.

Nessie: That is the mother of driver of the crane that was ordered to pay.

Did you read the article?

The court on Wednesday also ordered the driver, Masato Shibata, 28, and his employer at the time—who was aware of Shibata’s epilepsy—to pay damages, Sankei Shimbun reported Thursday. In total, the three have been ordered to pay 125 million yen in damages.

That's sucks...poor man RIP.