BUT for the grace of God, there could have been a hideous accident in Liverpool city centre yesterday afternoon. as a crane collapsed into a block of flats.

It was midday, when the flats were largely unoccupied, and despite considerable damage the only casualty appears to have been the unfortunate crane operator, now in hospital. Had the collapse happened six or seven hours later, we shudder to think what the consequences might have been in human life.

The very nature of a collapsing crane makes the incident all too public. They are remembered in a way in which other construction industry accidents are not.

With that proviso in mind, we can observe that there do seem to have been quite a few such incidents in Liverpool in the last few years, and not all of them have presented such lucky escapes.

Health and safety inspectors will have been on the site of the collapse in Tabley Street yesterday within minutes.

We hope that at least an interim report will be made available as quickly as possible. Given the number of collapses in Liverpool, we need to know as quickly as possible if this is simply a product of the construction boom in the city in recent years, or if there is a more ominous trend suggesting safety corners have been cut in the rush to rebuild.

Building always has been an industry with more than its fair share of accidents. Workplace safety is one area where good management and unions have set aside whatever disagreements they may have elsewhere, and the improvement in construction safety in recent years has been dramatic.

Realistically, a zero accident level in an industry like construction may never happen. But that is no reason to stop trying.