AEF Companies Crane Service Framing Construction Safety First

At any job construction site, cranes and hoists are indispensable pieces of equipments. Regrettably, cranes and hoists are also involved in more serious work related accidents than any other piece of heavy equipment. Cranes and Hoist accidents account for over 20% of construction site deaths and injuries. It is estimated that over 90% of Crane-related accidents are caused by human error.

It is very important for employees to learn how to make crane operations as safe as possible. With the proper preparation, equipment and attitude, costly accidents and injuries can be avoided. AEF Companies has established an on-site "Safety Intervention Program" to protect both their employees and their customers. This program has been designed to help employees identify physical hazards in the workplace, as well as unsafe behaviors that may lead to accidents. After all, the least expensive accident is one that never happens.

Those supervising the use of cranes can greatly improve workplace safety by targeting the craning hazards that cause the most injury and death. Basic hazard prevention measures can be taken to eliminate these hazards. It is important to ensure the safety of all personnel who may be in the immediate areas where cranes are being operated, not just the riggers, signalers and operators.

Workplace safety is more than complying with a few safety rules. Everyone must be involved: management, supervisors and the work crew. Each has specific safety responsibilities, and a mutual understanding of who is responsible for what is essential. A fact that is often overlooked is that hazards are the primary cause of most accidents, so hazard prevention is what brings about a safe workplace. But, what is a hazard? How can a hazard be controlled?

As it relates to cranes, a hazard may be thought of as any unsafe condition. Hazards may be present in three forms:

Dormant: A dormant hazard is an undetected hazard created either by design or crane use.
Armed: An armed hazard is a dormant hazard that has become armed and ready to cause harm during certain work circumstances.
Active: An active hazard is an armed hazard triggered into action by the right combination of factors. At this point it is too late to take any preventive action to escape injury or avoid death.

To change the design of a crane on a jobsite to make it safer is almost impossible, but there are measures within the control of every crane owner or user that can be taken to prevent a hazard from becoming armed and active. In decreasing order of importance, the most effective ways to control hazards are:

1. Eliminate or minimize the hazard. The major effort during the planning phase of any project must be to select appropriate work methods for cranes to eliminate hazards created by particular work circumstances.

2. Guard the hazard. Hazards that cannot be totally eliminated through planning must be reduced to an acceptable level of risk by the use of appropriate safety devices to guard, isolate or otherwise render the hazard effectively inert or inaccessible. If this cannot be done, then nearby personnel should be protected from the hazard. For example, the employer should ask the manufacturer to assist in installing guards to provide physical protection against moving parts. Listed below are other methods of guarding particular hazards or the danger zone they create.

Install screens or covers over moving parts.
To prevent electrocution when cranes are to be used in the vicinity of overhead energized power lines, have the local electric utility install line guards or covers on the lines. Use an insulated link on the hoist line to prevent the passage of electric current from the hook through the load to the person guiding the load on the ground.
Install fences, guardrails or other barriers to prevent entry into the danger zone created
by the rotating crane cab.
Ask the manufacturer to install a crush-resistant cab and restraint system that encloses the operator in a protective frame to give the operator a place of safety if upset occurs.

3. Give warning. When a hazard cannot be controlled by applying either the first or second method, an active, intercessory warning device should be installed that detects a hazard and emits a timely, audible and/or visual warning signal.

Examples are alarms, horns and flashing lights. Warning systems must emit the standard variety of sounds or flashes so the meaning of the warning will be understood. Some hazard detection systems not only give audible or visual warnings but are wired to stop or prohibit movement. On cranes, this is especially important so the boom can be stopped before it reaches a hazardous position. There are numerous suppliers of such items.
Signs and labels are passive warnings. They must be very explicit and state what the hazard is, what harm will result, and how to avoid the hazard. The signs for life-threatening hazards should be pictorial if possible, with the word DANGER written in white letters on an oval red background with a black border. Signs and labels are not substitutes for eliminating or guarding the hazard. Rather, warnings are best used to make users aware of a specific change of circumstances that can create a hazardous situation or of a dormant hazard that could not be totally eliminated or controlled. Warnings should also inform users as to why the specified safeguard must be used.

Requirements for signs and labels are set forth in Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standards, “Specifications for Accident Prevention Signs and Tags,” 29 CFR 1910.145; “Signs, Signals, and Barricades,” 29 CFR 1926.200; and Society of Automotive Engineers Recommended Practices (SAE) J115, “Safety Signs.”

4. Special procedures and training. When a hazard cannot be eliminated or its risk reduced by any of the first three methods, then planning, special operating procedures, training and audits must be employed to guarantee that a viable, continuing regimen will effect avoidance of the hazard.

5. Personal protective equipment. Use of gloves, taglines to guide the load, hard hats, safety shoes, aprons, goggles, safety glasses, lifelines, life jackets and other protective equipment at all appropriate times will also protect users from injury. Often a combination of several of these five preventive measures is necessary to control a life-threatening hazard.

Compliance inspections will ensure that the operator is adequately trained, the employer/operator are following OSHA and ANSI requirements for the particular crane they are operating, cranes have been inspected prior to service and on a daily basis per ANSI and OSHA standards, the crane and operation thereof are in good repair, cranes are receiving required preventative maintenance, and that proper documentation is maintained by the employer.