Who makes sure cranes are safe?

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.newsobserver.com/business/story/1005331.html

In N.C., it's mostly up to crane company workers; state inspectors play a minor role

Dudley Price, Staff Writer
Giant tower cranes on the Triangle skyline used to signify only economic prosperity.

But a crane accident Saturday that killed seven people in New York raises the question: Could a similar tragedy happen here?

"Cranes are very safe, ... it's just like airplanes," said Carl Hertag, national parts manager for Morrow Equipment of Oregon, which owns giant cranes and leases them throughout the country. "Most planes that crash are generally due to human error."

Hertag, who has worked in the industry for 38 years, said he had no firsthand knowledge of what caused the crane to fall across two Manhattan city blocks. Investigators are focusing on a massive steel collar which fell as workers were trying to attach the crane to a 19-story apartment building.

In North Carolina, government inspectors play only a minor role in keeping the complex machines safe. That job is mostly left to the crane owner, riggers who erect, extend and dismantle the cranes and the operator who is responsible for daily inspections.

"We don't have enough inspectors to look at every crane as it's set up," said Neal O'Briant, a spokesman for the state Department of Labor, which enforces federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration workplace safety rules. "We have 114 inspectors for 250,000 workplaces in North Carolina."

But few states require that crane operators be certified, and some argue that operators lack necessary training to make all the checks.

FULL story at link.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

1. There are other types of crane accidents that produce injury and

death. There is a Democraticunderground, there is an Oshaunderground, how appropriate. Change comes from the bottom up and rarely from the top down.


http://oshaunderground.blogspot.com/2008/03/osha-fines-company-after-crane-workers.html
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
OSHA fines company after crane worker's electrocution death

http://www.idahobusiness.net/archive.htm/2008/03/21/OSHA-fines-company-after-workers-electrocution-death

Thirty-eight-year-old Kenneth Lahn died Feb. 5 in Jerome after a crane he was working on hit a live power line. The operator of the crane was unharmed, but the 7,000-volt surge grounded through Lahn, killing him.

OSHA Area Director Jerry Hockett says the workers didn't recognize the hazard the power line posed.
Too many crane deaths. Where is the crane standard?

[YDogg]

2. There are sand hill cranes living in a nature preserve near our house ...

... and we do what we can to ensure that they are safe. Like not feeding them bread and stuff, so they don't get used to human contact.





On a slightly more serious note, there is a multi-story building under construction next to my office building. They have been swinging stuff toward our building, and I was curious about that sort of thing. My understanding from the construction supervisor is that the construction company is responsible for the entire safety operation once permits have been issued. May be a local thing; I don't know.

[LSparkle]

3. Mrs. Mitch (Ditch) McConnell ... Labor Secretary

That bitch has been a DISASTER from the get go ...

[ChairmanAgnostic]

4. Bird instructors, normally.

It took this country 100 YEARS to pass laws like the Structural Work Act, the NY and IL Workman's Compensation Act (it took 2 decades to make it workers, not workman's)

coal mines and other dangerous professions finally followed suit.

only under Bush, and most likely, Clinton, have all our protections been ripped away like a deep scab.