Hanoi authorities have demanded that 16 cranes at construction sites be removed as they were found operating dangerously in violation of safety standards.

>> Hanoi bans construction cranes from operating in daytime for safety reasons The request was jointly issued by the Department of Construction and the Department of Labor, War Invalids, and Social Affairs at their meeting in the capital on Thursday after a joint team carried out an inspection of cranes at local construction sites, according to news website VnExpress. The inspection followed a series of accidents caused by crane collapses that have recently occurred in Hanoi and other localities, killing several people and injuring many others. All these 16 cranes have been installed in locations that violate safety regulations, and present danger to people and vehicles traveling under or near them. After giving administrative penalties to the contractors involved, the team asked them to remove these cranes.   The city now has thousands of cranes sitting at construction sites and 70 percent of them often jut out into the space above streets, posing threats to passers-by, the inspection team said. Suspending these cranes will greatly affect the progress of many construction projects so the two departments have agreed to a solution that such cranes are allowed to operate only from 10:00 pm to 5:00 am the next day.

During the operation of the cranes, warning signs and guards must be arranged at the construction sites, the departments said.

Last week, the Hanoi People’s Committee requested that all construction cranes at risk of collapse must be suspended from use for safety tests and they will only be allowed to operate eight hours from 10:00 pm to 6:00 am the next day (one hour longer than agreed by the two departments) even after they pass the tests. Many accidents related to unsafe cranes have occurred in Hanoi recent times. The most recent one happened at 4:00 am on May 12, when a crane at a railway construction site in Cau Giay District suddenly gave way. A cable of the collapsed crane hit a 26-year-old man, Le Thanh Hoan, who was traveling on his motorbike, in the neck, throwing him off the bike and leaving him with scratches on his body. The same cable also struck the bike of a woman named Nhung, who is in the late stages of pregnancy. The strike threw her to the ground but she suffered no injuries. However, some locals still took her to a hospital for a check-up On March 7, 2015, a 46 meter-tall crane fell to the ground on Nguyen Huu Tho Street, but there were no casualties. Another accident occurred on November 6, 2014, when a crane fell on Nguyen Trai Street in the capital, killing one person immediately and injuring many others.

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