Crane crash victim named

9:27am Thursday 28th September 2006

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THE MAN killed by a 165ft crane crashing down on him where he washed his car has been named as Michael Alexa.

The 23-year-old bus driver's body is still on the scene near Battersea Power Station in south London as police wait for two cranes to lift the wreckage on top of him.

The "complex and technical operation" is due to be completed on Friday, a Met spokesman said.

Witnesses said the arm of the crane became detached from the mast just before 6pm on Tuesday. The multi-tonne structure fell partly onto a two-storey block of flats in Thessaly Road, next to the Barratt Homes building site.

The crane driver, a 37-year-old employee of Falcon Crane Hire, died when he was thrown through the glass roof of the control cabin and onto the windscreen of a parked car.

Mr Alexa was a father-of-one who lived with his partner, said a spokesman London General, the bus firm that employed him.

No-one inside the flats was hurt, although one man suffered light head injuries.

Twenty-five of the flats were evacuated due to a gas leak caused by the crash.

"I heard a crashing noise, it was like a bomb had gone off and the settee shuddered," said a resident from an estate block on nearby Savona Street. "It was so loud, that even though I had the TV on, I could hear it."

Battersea MP Martin Linton said people in the affected block have been evacuated to a hotel in North London. "I'm in talks to get them moved nearer to Battersea so that they can get to work and school."

The building site previously housed the John Milton Primary School, which was demolished despite opposition from residents.

"It was a really good neighbourhood school," the Battersea MP added. "Residents and I fought against the closure, all the way to the adjudicator, but we lost. Parents and kids felt a tremendous loyalty to it."

An inquiry by inspectors of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is now underway.

• Additional reporting by Carlene Thomas