Three persons were injured when a crane carrying a newly built boat collapsed on the jetty here on Sunday.
Police said S. Jerald of Terespuram had hired the crane to take his country boat, weighing about 20 tonnes, into the sea. When the exercise was in progress, the crane, which had been positioned on the jetty, crashed and fell into the sea as it could not bear the weight of the boat.
Besides badly damaging the boat, the crushing crane injured A. Jayakumar (45), N. Michael (45) and Samsu (40), all from Terespuram.
The injured have been admitted to a private hospital here.
Though the Department of Fisheries has banned the use of cranes for taking the boats into the sea as similar accidents had taken place in the past, the fishermen of Terespuram are still following this method, leading to accidents.
“Since the jetty has been designed and constructed to handle only the fish carts collecting fishes from the boats, it cannot withstand heavier objects like cranes or cranes lifting the boats, weighing several tonnes.
If this instruction is violated, accidents will certainly happen to injure several people involved in the exercise or standing nearby.
We are contemplating action against the boat owner who hired the crane,” said a senior official of Department of Fisheries.
