A 45-year-old man was released from the hospital Tuesday afternoon after suffering minor injuries in a fall from a crane at the Port of Milwaukee on Tuesday morning, officials said.
Milwaukee firefighters were called to the 1200 block of S. Lincoln Memorial Drive at 8:55 a.m. for a report of a workplace accident.
Jeff Fleming, a spokesman for the Port of Milwaukee, said a 45-year-old Milwaukee man was working with another, experienced crane operator on moving a crane from Terminal 2 to Terminal 3 when the accident happened.
"To move the crane, they have to get it under the Hoan Bridge. They have to lower the boom," a vertical part of the crane, Fleming said. "They were in the process of adjusting the crane so they can lower the boom. The 45-year-old was apparently taken by a piece of equipment that moved and he was knocked off an elevated platform on the crane and fell several feet to the base of the crane."
The man fell from an elevated painted platform at the top of the base of the crane to a housing above the tracks of the crane, which Fleming estimated is 12 to 15 feet off the ground.
He said the man was never suspended in the air, as the Milwaukee Fire Department initially reported, but stationary.
The Fire Department's heavy urban response team responded and the man was removed by 9:16 a.m., a department spokeswoman said. Fifteen minutes later, the man was transported to Froedtert Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
The Milwaukee Police Department is investigating the matter, Fleming said.
He said the man has worked with the port for less than a year but is an experienced crane operator.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
