Arbor Update

Construction Equipment/House Collision

29. August 2005 • Brandon
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Preliminary reports are coming-in about a cherry-picker colliding with two houses on 5th between Packard and Madison.

UPDATE (courtesy of Dale):

A utilities vehicle with a telescoping arm appears to have been parked/anchored
at or near the west curb on Fifth just north of Madison, when equipment failure
or operator error allowed it to begin rolling down the hill. The vehicle
appears to have crashed through several garbage bins set at the sidewalk and
rammed into the porch of a two-story house on Fifth. It crashed through the
porch and into the corner of the house, where it came to rest. The telescoping
arm smashed through the exterior siding of the neighboring house. Needless to
say, Fifth is closed off and there are numerous police, fire, and DTE vehicles
at the site, though no ambulances were in evidence. Word at the site was that
the house with the most damage was unoccupied at the time. PHOTOS: 1, 2.

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1. My report has it that the houses are on 5th, just south of Packard. One porch knocked off and a second house collided with. I haven’t seen it, but it sounds like the arm, which was down, just went swinging out of control. The guys in the hard hats are saying “garble, garble, garble, the pneumatic…”.
      —Parking Structure Dude!    Aug. 29 '05 - 03:45PM    #
   
2. Photo 1 shows the carnage pretty well. If you look at the arm, you can see where it punched into the clapboard siding of the second house.
      —Dale    Aug. 29 '05 - 11:14PM    #
   
3. Wow. That’s just brilliant. I wonder if insurance covers that or if the construction company has to pay for it.
      —eston    Aug. 30 '05 - 06:27PM    #