The crane truck from which an extension fell, landing on the Christ Episcopal Church in Montpelier and also damaging the truck. Photo by Amy Ash Nixon/VTDigger
The owner of a crane that collapsed across the roof of an historic downtown Montpelier church Monday had recently settled a lawsuit related to unpaid cleanup costs for a 2011 accident in Calais.
Richard Hutchins, owner and general manager of Hutch Crane and Pump Rental Corp., said Tuesday that the 2011 incident was a transportation accident that occurred when one of the company’s crane trucks veered onto a soft shoulder and lost control.
“We did have a highway accident, where a crane hit a soft shoulder and went down over a bank,” Hutchins said. “We’ve never had an on-site crane accident before [Monday], and we’ve been doing crane work since 1984.”
Monday’s incident at Christ Episcopal Church on State Street in Montpelier was the result of a “mechanical failure,” Hutchins said.
Hutchins said a pin that held the crane in place “let go” Monday, allowing the crane’s arm to crash across the church roof.
The lawsuit over the 2011 incident was the result of a dispute over charges for the removal of the crane that went off the road. Hutchins said the costs billed to his company by CCS Constructors of Morristown for the removal of the truck were excessive and the company did not pay.
A spokesman for CCS, which sued Hutch, the East Montpelier Volunteer Fire Department and the Town of Calais over the 2011 incident, said Hutch was “lucky” that no one was injured in the Montpelier accident.
Vince Illuzzi, the attorney for CCS, said that in 2011 the East Montpelier Volunteer Fire Department ordered CCS “to work overnight, and they did, and a lot of costs were incurred, and then Hutch wouldn’t pay the bill that CCS submitted, so we had to file suit.”
The lawsuit over the Calais incident was settled about two months ago. The contents of the settlement are not public.
The lawsuit brought by CCS says Hutch Crane had been advised that it would cost about $100,000 to remove the crane, which municipal officials wanted expedited because of concerns over fluids leaking and the proximity to Pekin Brook; the crane had landed in a wetland area, the lawsuit states.
Hutchins said Tuesday the crane recovery should not have cost more than $30,000.
Meanwhile, work at the church, where the felled crane was removed late Monday using two other cranes, continued Tuesday. Tarps were placed over the damage caused to the 1868 church’s slate roof. There was also some interior damage, and the sanctuary will be closed for an unknown period of time.
The crane was working at the church as part of a project in which several granite blocks in one corner of the building were being taken out for work, and were numbered with red tags so they could be put back in the exact spots, the Rev. Paul Habersang, of Christ Episcopal Church, said.
Daniel A. Whipple, VOSHA program manager for the state, said Tuesday that a search for Hutch Crane did not find any past OSHA/VOSHA issues. He said he could not comment on the ongoing investigation into the crane accident at the church.
The post Crane owner had recently settled legal dispute over bill appeared first on VTDigger.