10.09.2009

Singapore issues crane safety recommendations

The Government of Singapore’s Manpower ministry has issued a report and recommendations on crane safety, which largely blames employers, after studying 40 crane accidents that have occurred over the past few years.

The study by the National Crane Safety Taskforce which was set up in July by the Ministry and the Workplace Safety and Health Council (WSHC) covers a wide range of accidents including tower, mobile and other types of crane.

The 40 cases reviewed were grouped by four key causes - Man, Medium, Machine or Management.

‘Management’ failures were identified as the largest contributing factor in 25 of the accidents. The report accuses companies of a lack of proper site assessment, inadequate crane inspections, a failure to put safe work procedures in place, a lack of adequate training, insufficient checks and measures to address ground conditions and a lack of supervision of staff.

‘Man’ – human error was a contributing factor in 23 of the 40 accidents, due mostly to a violation of safety rules and regulations by individuals, including the bypassing of limit switches, ignoring warning alarms, a failure to check load charts and the lack of knowledge on the weight of the load being lifted.

‘Machine’ - 14 accidents were blamed on Machine – equipment failure, the most common examples being wire rope and limit switch failures.

‘Medium’ - nine accidents were blamed on ground conditions and the failure to use outrigger mats of cribbing. (we do not know how many of the accidents involved mobile cranes so this number is more significant than it suggests).

The taskforce is chaired by Tan Wee Seng, managing director of Bovis Lend Lease Pte Ltd and includes government and industry representatives including: Frankie Tan of the Singapore Crane Association, Wilfred Tan of Tiong Woon Crane and Transport, John Stewart of Manitowoc and Albert Chan of Liebherr.

As a result of its findings it has made several recommendations and will embark on a three-pronged strategy to improve safety.
These include:

1. An enhancement of Training
- Improve training content of various mandatory courses for lifting
operations, particularly those for lifting supervisors, crane operators,
riggers and signalmen.

- Improve quality of delivery of the training courses on lifting operations
to ensure lifting personnel are competently trained

2. Enhancement of Outreach Efforts

- Establish programmes to enhance outreach efforts to top management,
crane manufacturers (upstream) and crane operators (downstream).
- Develop a risk register for lifting operations and incorporate crane
safety messages in the various engagement platforms, including case
studies, newsletters and forums

3. Review of Codes of Practice

- Review the relevant Codes of Practice such as the CP62:1995 Code of
Practice for the Safe Use of Tower Cranes (which is led by SPRING)
- Draft and issue a checklist on Crane Maintenance.

In addition, the Taskforce will explore new technology to enhance safe lifting and make recommendations to the government on a possible review of legislation.

The Taskforce will provide further updates on its progress in early 2010.

Industry stakeholders who wish to contribute to the work of the
Taskforce and improve the safety of crane operations are invited to email [email protected].

This is an excellent report and can be accessed through the web on Click here to go directly to the full report