Fact Check

Crane Accident

Do photographs show a series of cranes falling into the water while attempting to retrieve a submerged automobile?

Published Dec. 10, 2004

Claim:

Claim:   Photographs show a series of cranes falling into the water while attempting to retrieve a submerged automobile.


MIXTURE OF REAL AND FAKE IMAGES


Example:   [Collected via e-mail, December 2004]


The explanation for this fiasco could be almost anything except human failure. For example; the Loch Ness Monster, "Jaws" — The Great White, or even a provoked entity called GRAVITY.

So after having lunch in the local pub you call your boss and explain why you can't return to work that afternoon. Okay?


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Crane


 

Origins:   The first eight photographs in this series — showing a crane attempting to retrieve an automobile from a body of water, the crane tipping and falling into the water itself, and a second crane fishing both vehicles out of the water — are genuine photographs of an incident that took place in Ireland at Roundstone Pier, Conemmara, Galway, around September 2004 (as described in one news account's breathless, paragraph-long sentence):



We have certainly have had our ups and downs in the village this year what with somebody falling off the village wall, thank god not killed, and then in the wee hours of Saturday morning, a car goes into the Harbour, with a young man at the wheel, the car landed upside down and if it was not for the vigilance Mary King who

alerted Sean de Courcey, Sean fair play to him pulled this man out of the car, which was nearly totally submerged in the tide and pulled him to safety, what ever way you look at it, Sean saved his life, yet again another near fatal accident, and then I suppose on the slightly humorous side and to add insult to injury, a tow truck was called out to pull the car out, now get this, the truck fell in while trying to lift the car, no don't worry there was no one in it, it was remote controlled, but the machine was not heavier enough to lift the car out, therefore, a proper professional machine had to be called in, and the job was done, no loss of life, what was interesting the amount of people that came to have a look at this task you would think we had another social event going on.


However, the final photograph showing the second crane also tipping and falling into the water is what makes this series particularly appealing to viewers, and it's a fake.
The second crane brought to the site did not also end up splashing into the water below: the last image in the series is clearly just a digitally altered version of the fifth image and not a genuine part of the depicted series of events. Among other tell-tale signs, the bystanders to the right of the crane are in the very same positions in these two images, and the small white boat seen in the left-hand portion of these pictures has disappeared in the penultimate photo but oddly reappears in the last frame.

Last updated:   30 October 2013

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Sources:




    Samuelson, Julie.   "Union Pacific Loses Bridge to Fire."

    The Western Times.   18 April 2002.

    The Topeka Capital-Journal.   "Briefly in Kansas."

    17 April 2002.



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David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994.

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