11.05.2018
Second crane incident on Florida site
A second near miss has occurred on a St Petersburg, Florida, job site in just over a month.
On Monday a crawler crane lifting a large concrete panel dropped it narrowly missing those working nearby. The incident happened on the site of the new police headquarters. In April a crawler crane lifting a scissor lift overturned, narrowly missing those on the ground
See Crawler crane overturn captured on video. Once again no one was injured in the incident.
This time the fault was caused by the failure of a lifting bar, embedded in the concrete panel. The entire incident was captured on video and released to the local press earlier today. You can see a local news report below.
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The scene shortly after the incident occurred
The main contractor Ajax Construction, said: “Monday’s incident was caused by a defect in the concrete panel, causing a steel insert to sheer as the massive panel was being lifted, causing it to fall.” OSHA is investigating.
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Good Afternoon Mr Editor,
Safety is like Apple Pie and Ice Cream, everyone loves it.
So why is it in an Industry that claims to be so Safe, do we see so many Crane Incidents with April 2018 being no Exception with Eleven (11) seperate Crane Incidents in the past month, that is one every 44 Hours.
With a One Fatal Dropped Load, Two Short-Rigged Incidents and Three Crane Rollovers including a 73 Metre (240 foot) Crawler Crane Jib (Boom) Dropped to the Ground in Yazid, Iran, miraculously all without Injury on 180418.
With the earlier Dropped Pallet of Bricks incident resulting in the death of Ms Michaela 'Kayla' Boor, aged 29yrs, on a London Street in broad daylight. (RIP Michaela). Thus confirming once again that we are not yet learning the Lessons of History, as there is no Safe System of Work for Slewing Loads over the Heads of Pedestrians on the Street below. None absolutley None.
Moreover because the Fatal Crane incident on 270318 is now the 475th (yes 475) Fatality involving Cranes or Lifting Operations Worldwide since starting to Research this subject of Crane Safety on 070507, a Significant Safety Initiative is now required ASAP.
Therefore in the absence of any other Crane Industry Safety Initiatives, this then is my suggestion.
a) Start a Crane Safety Training Programme and call it How to Avoid Crane Incidents.
b) Safety Training Programme to include Physics on how to calculate Force, Mass and Gravity.
c) Train all Directors & Managers in the UK Legal Obligation called RAMS, in order to devise Safe Systems of Work for all Lifting Ops.
HSE will confirm that the recommended Hierarchy of Controls to pro-actively Manage Safety is known as ERIC-PD ( Eliminate, Reduce, Isolate, Control, PPE & Discipline).
Therefore the start point appears to be a Ban of the word Accident, as its usage perpetuates the Myth that Safety is not Manageable, which is patently untrue. Moreover it is now highly cost-effective to set-up a Training programme because Worker Safety is Important, very important and much too important to leave it to chance.
Especially for Pedestrians on the Pavements below.
I trust you would all agree, starting with ERIC ?
Kind Regards
Mike Ponsonby