Yet another crane accident occurred last week, leading the questions to fly regarding why there is such an influx of crane accidents this year as compared to the past. Several people who have been closely following the outbreak weighed in on the issue:
“I contend that (the accidents are) due to the real excess of construction activity in the U.S. in the last three or four years,” said Bernard Ross of the engineering and scientific consulting firm Exponent in Menlo Park, Calif.
Ross, whose specialty is heavy equipment and crane failure, said, “There’s just a very large increase in the number of cranes that are on job sites.” And, with the spike in crane use, there’s a resulting lack of workers qualified to operate the machines, Ross said. That compounds the potential for crane problems. There is no evidence that the crane operator in Monday’s local accident was not qualified.
National research on accidents, based on data collected by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, shows that from 2000 to 2006 there’s been an average of 78 crane-related deaths a year in the United States.
However, those numbers downplay the extent of crane problems, according to Tom Barth, a Goose Creek crane inspector and operator who also investigates collapses.
OSHA only tracks failures that result in fatalities or multiple injuries. Close calls like the incident at the Hilton Head marina aren’t counted. Barth said there’s a need for stiffer regulation. In South Carolina and 34 other states, crane operators are not required to be certified. He said that too often workers are learning to operate cranes on the job.