Posted on: Sunday, March 20, 2005

Runaway crane creates havoc

By Karen Blakeman
Advertiser Staff Writer

A runaway crane on a steep street in Kane'ohe slammed into a car, took out a fence, damaged a driveway and caused a few moments of hair-raising excitement yesterday, but no one was injured.

The driver of the crane was approaching the top of Kalenakai Place off Kane'ohe Bay Drive and apparently lost both power and brakes, said William Keller, a resident of the street.

It began rolling backward, and the driver jumped out.

Keller said he was alerted to the danger when he heard the 40-foot-long vehicle strike a car. He went into his yard to see what had caused the commotion, and saw the crane tear through one neighbor's cyclone fence and flip over a stone wall, taking out part of a second neighbor's driveway.

The crane missed overhead power lines and did not hit either neighbor's house.

Ian Harrington of 44-121 Kalenakai Place came home later and found a 14-ton crane lying upside down with the boom sticking out into the street and the rest of it in his yard and a neighbor's yard.

His water meter and his neighbor's mailbox had been crushed.

Harrington had been through this before. His pickup had been damaged by a large runaway truck in a similar incident about 15 years ago.

He took the crane in the yard serenely.

"What the heck can you do about it?" he said.

A lot of sweat, manipulation and large pieces of equipment were required to remove the crane, Harrington said. The owner got it out of his yard at about 6 p.m.

Reach Karen Blakeman at 535-2430 or kblakeman@honoluluadvertiser.com.