This was caused by a lack of experience. A union mechanic thought he was also a pretty good crane operator, but when put to the test he made a few bad decisions in his plan. He drove down the center of the earth dam and ran his outriggers straight down without extending them. There was plenty of room to move towards the back side of top of the dam and run out his beams on the side he was working. In the process of lifting a manhole, he felt something going on and stepped out of the crane onto deck. The crane was in the process of tipping at that time. When the manhole he was lifting touched the ground, the crane was too far gone and tipped on over anyway. The mechanic was thrown from the crane and broke his leg when he landed on the slope of the dam. The boom landed in such a manner that the rig did not go over the edge and was fairly easy to upright. This rig had all of 60 hours on it at the time. $60,000.00 later it was back in service.