09.06.2007

Crane Driver cited

The USA- Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
(Osha) has determined that a crane operator was at fault in the March accident in Grand Junction, Colorado, in which a lattice boom crashed across the site of a multi storey parking garage. See original story

The operator, an employee of PSI Crane and Rigging of Newcastle, Colorado, is accused of improperly operating the crane. The Osha citation states that the crane operator was not properly employing an emergency brake on the crane’s boom, which would have prevented it from crashing into the work site.

“On March 9, 2007 and at times prior, the crane operator … was not instructed in the proper use of the boom hoist pawl as described in the” operators manual, the citation states. “This condition exposed the employees to a struck-by hazard.”

As a result of the citation, PSI will be fined $3,500,

The falling boom caused 39-year-old Arturo Carrola-Andrade of Olathe to fall from scaffold, fortunately he only broke his leg. Construction was halted for several days as the investigation got underway.

Gerald Burk, president of PSI Crane and Rigging, said his company plans to contest the OSHA citation in its entirety. “They didn’t do it right … the citation,” Burk said. He said the crane operator, Jerry Maigatter of Clifton, was properly operating the machine.

The $3,500 fine is the second time in two years PSI has been fined for “serious” violations of federal workplace regulations. The company was fined $1,200 as a result of at least one “serious” safety violation at a construction site in Vail in 2005.