The First Facility Management Blog

To coincide with the proposed rule on Cranes and Derricks in Construction, published in the 10/9/08 edition of the Federal Register, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has initiated a National Crane Safety Initiative to address safety hazards during construction crane operation. The Crane Safety Initiative also builds on a number of steps taken by OSHA earlier this year to raise awareness on crane safety and increase enforcement of the current standards, including launching local emphasis programs in a number of regions to inspect high-rise construction, stakeholder outreach, and additional training on crane safety.

“Three important features of this initiative are that it will provide information and outreach to the construction industry and other stakeholders, offer enhanced resources to OSHA inspectors who address crane safety, and implement a National Emphasis Program on Crane Safety,” said Assistant Secretary for Occupational Safety and Health Edwin G. Foulke, Jr. “The Bureau of Labor Statistics recently reported the 2007 fatality rate was the lowest in recorded history, including a reported 5% reduction in fatalities for the construction industry. This initiative builds upon this successful record.”

Through its agency partners in the construction industry, OSHA will increase awareness of—and provide information on how to avoid—crane hazards. The agency’s compliance safety and health officers will receive enhanced resources on crane safety. Additionally, the National Emphasis Program will incorporate increased targeted inspections of construction worksites to identify crane hazards and promote compliance with workplace crane safety requirements.

A deadly construction accident on Saturday, March 15 has taken the lives of six construction workers and one woman in town for the St. Patrick’s Day Parade. All missing people are now accounted for.

Despite several existing violations and numerous complaints from concerned neighbors, the accident is still under investigation. One possible cause may be the strength of a series of hoists and nylon straps used to hold a massive piece of steel designed, according to a report by William Neuman and Charles V. Bagli of the New York Times.

The vulnerability of the supports may have caused “a massive piece of steel designed to secure it to a new high-rise building to come loose and pancake on top of a second support nine stories below, shearing it free and creating a fatal imbalance that sent the 22-story crane toppling across a two-block area” of a densely populated Manhattan neighborhood near the United Nations complex, according to the Times article.

WNYC’s Arun Venugopal reports, “The city had issued 13 violations over the last couple years to the construction site, and according to Mayor Bloomberg, there’s nothing unusual about that. But local residents and officials say otherwise. A number of them had complained to the Department of Buildings about conditions at the site and say their concerns weren’t taken seriously.”

One dismissed complaint came from retired contractor, Bruce Silberblatt, who “warned the city 12 days ago the doomed crane on E. 51st St. wasn’t properly braced, but the Buildings Department blew him off after making a cursory check,” according to Rich Shapiro, staff writer for the New York Daily News. Silberblatt had been concerned for days about the lack of braces securing the crane at a construction site near his home.

Silberblatt says, “I think the Buildings Department is grossly negligent because they had been warned. They sent an inspector and they brushed it under the rug, so to speak. Now, I’m sitting here and, at last count, four people are dead and a couple buildings on 50th St. are completely wrecked.”

This raw helicopter footage of the scene shows the extent of the accident.

U.S. statistics estimate that between 64 and 82 construction workers are killed and 263 injured each year working around cranes and derricks. American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) members note that crane accidents are more likely to cause injuries and/or death than most other types of equipment, according to statistics, and that comprehensive training programs for crane operators are a must when it comes to preventing fatalities and injuries.

Certified crane operator and rigging trainer Greg Peters notes, “A national crane operator certification requirement will certainly lead to safer crane operations. The first step is to ensure that operators are being properly trained before attempting to achieve certification.”

Peters noted an exchange he recently had with a colleague. “You know,” he said, “when my wife gets her nails done or hair cut, the individual providing the service has to hold a license. Yet, crane operators—who have the ability to hoist thousands of pounds of equipment hundreds of feet in the air—do not have to hold a recognized certification.” Strange, but true, Peters notes.

“In 2004, the Crane and Derricks Negotiated Rulemaking Advisory Committee (C-DAC) completed its draft proposal for a revised crane and derrick standard for construction. The draft was then submitted to OSHA,” according to Peters.

“The draft standard would create a crane operator certification requirement at the federal level. To date, 14 states have enacted legislation to require operator certification, but federal OSHA regulations contain no such provision. The existing rule for cranes and derricks in construction, codified in 29 CFR Part 1926.550 (Subpart N), dates to 1971 and is based primarily on industry consensus standards published from 1967 through 1969.”

Peters adds, “When it comes to crane accidents, the obvious question is why do these accidents occur. After an accident, if you speak with an operator, investigative/review team or any observer in an effort to understand what happened and why, you will often find that the incident could have been prevented. Why, then, do so many crane incidents continue to occur? You can cite the typical laundry list of causes—complacency, pressure to get the job done, wrong equipment, etc.—but in my experience, in most cases, the accident is a result of lack of training.

“Based on my experience, the crane operator certification requirement is much needed,” Peters writes. “In my case, my employer had a solid training program in place. Yet, when the state of California enacted a certification requirement, the firm began to prepare operators for the certification exams and found several training gaps that needed to be addressed. It is important to understand the difference between training and certification. Certification is not what makes an operator safe. What makes an operator safe is the training received before achieving the certification.”

The benefits of requiring certified operators go well beyond the level of competence in skill ability and knowledge, Peters writes. For example, in some cases, a firm might qualify for general liability insurance premium discounts for having certified operators. The National Commission for the Certification of Crane Operators (NCCCO) offers crane operator certification.

The NCCCO certification process has been accredited by the National Commission for Certifying Agencies. All mobile crane operators must take a core exam, which features 90 questions and must be completed within 90 minutes and depending on the type of crane for which certification is sought, the candidate must also pass a specialty exam. In addition to the written exam, each operator must demonstrate proficiency operating the corresponding crane type by taking a practical exam. Candidates have up to 12 months to complete both exams (which can be taken in any order). Once certification is achieved, it is effective for five years, as long as medical compliance is maintained.

Peters notes, “Today’s cranes are engineered to achieve the maximum capacity to be lifted with the lightest amount of weight to be carried down a highway. As a result, the days of “running by the seat of your pants”—that is, of floating an outrigger to determine how much something weighs—are gone. If this technique were used on a modern-day crane, the crane would upset and crash well before the operator knew it was coming. To ensure safety, an operator must understand the load and the notes on it in order to correctly determine the crane’s net capacity, and to determine whether the weight of the load is under the net capacity allowed. If these procedures are not understood or not performed correctly, the result can be catastrophic.”

ASSE member Van. A. Howell, CSP, observes that crane accidents are usually the result of failure to:

• maintain the crane in a safe position;
• properly inspect the crane;
• properly calculate the load;
• rig the load properly; and,
• manually compute the load as a check-and-control-measure against the crane computer

UPDATE: Late Wednesday (3/19), Crane Inspector Edward Marquette was arrested for lying about inspecting the crane involved in the above accident. Apparently, he never carried out the March 4 inspection which might have prevented the accident. He has also been suspended from the Department of Buildings.