Collapsed Crane Kills Trucker at Freeway Site

A crane loading a 12,000-pound concrete freeway barrier onto a flatbed truck toppled just off the San Diego Freeway on Thursday morning, crushing the truck driver as he waited at the wheel, authorities said.

Mike Bonus, 38, of Santa Ana, a driver for Kerr Trucking, was killed when the fixed boom of a mobile 14 1/2-ton crane, owned by Steve P. Rados Inc., smashed the cab about 8:35 a.m. in a construction zone between the freeway and an access road.

The crane, with a boom extending about 30 feet, was being used as part of the massive Century Freeway project.

Bumper-to-bumper commuter traffic edged past the accident scene between Century Boulevard and Arbor Vitae Avenue, prompting the California Highway Patrol to declare a SigAlert.

The crane operator, George Herfel, 50, of Gilbert, Ariz., was questioned by representatives of the state’s worker safety agency, Cal/OSHA, the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office and the Inglewood Police Department about the possible cause of the accident.

“The crane was swinging over, and it fell onto the truck,” said Nick Payan, project manager for the Santa Ana-based Rados firm. “We’re investigating it right now. We don’t know what happened.”

Cal/OSHA spokesman Rick Rice said no cause had been determined by late Thursday.

Eyewitnesses, however, said it appeared that an outrigger intended to brace and stabilize the crane had not been extended on the right side. Rice said he could not confirm the reports. A check of state and federal occupational safety records showed Thursday that Steve P. Rados Inc. has not been cited for any previous crane accidents.

The company has been cited for “general,” non-serious crane safety violations three times during the last 10 years in response to complaints by employees, according to records. Each violation occurred in the Gorman area.

And the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration proposed a $250 penalty against the company in 1988 for using a front-end loader with a defective backup alarm at a Santa Ana construction site, a violation classified as serious by the agency.

Efforts to contact a Steve P. Rados spokesman at the firm’s headquarters Thursday were unsuccessful.

As the crane lay on its side Friday morning, only the left outriggers appeared to be extended.

“What happened was pure neglect,” declared Kenny Synco of Anaheim, a driver for Bob Boyd Trucking in Orange. “The guy (Herfel) should have had his outrigger out.”

Synco said four other trucks had been loaded with the “K-rail barriers”--used to temporarily divide roadways--before the crane toppled.

“They put one piece on,” he said. “They started a second piece, and the crane started going over.”

When he saw the crane go, Synco said he was about 30 feet from Bonus’ truck. Synco said he ran toward it, climbed up into the cab and felt for the driver’s pulse, but Bonus was dead.

Another Bob Boyd Trucking driver, Kevin Olver, saw the teetering crane and yelled: “The crane’s going over, and Mike’s still in the truck. . . . We watched the whole thing and there was nothing we could do.”

He said the crane’s right outriggers were not pulled out.

“It could have happened to us,” Olver said. “We were next in line.”

Ted Burgess, a Westminster trucker who also drives for Kerr Trucking, said he picked up a load before the accident and returned to find his co-worker had been killed.

“I can’t believe it,” Burgess said. “I just talked to the guy. I said to him, ‘See you next trip.’ ”

Burgess blamed the accident on the right outriggers. He also said the truck driven by Bonus was not close enough to the crane. He estimated that there was 10 feet between the truck and the crane during loading.

When he was loaded, Burgess said his truck was within a foot of the crane.

High-rise cranes are required to be certified when they are erected and then annually if they are still operating. It was unclear whether those requirements apply to smaller, fixed-boom cranes, such as the one involved in Thursday’s accident.

Crane operators in Los Angeles are required to pass a test and be licensed. Investigators were unable to immediately determine the status of Herfel, the crane’s operator.