Fool Me Three Times

Katie Parrish

November 15, 2006 • Six months ago, the $150 million Colorado Springs Metro Interstate Expansion (COSMIX) was the talk of the crane industry after two accidents using 30-ton rough-terrain cranes from the same manufacturer tipped over within five weeks. In both instances, the cranes were placing concrete barriers, or K-rail, when they tipped over. While the first accident resulted in a fatality, the operator walked away uninjured after the second accident.

 

An unprecedented third crane tipped over on the COSMIX project last week, raising major concerns within the crane industry and OSHA. This time, the lattice boom crane was one of two lifting concrete girders. According to the project spokesperson, the “crane buckled and dropped one end of the girder onto the off-ramp” during the second of eight picks. Fortunately, police were already on-site because of lane closures, and a hasty state trooper halted traffic as he saw the boom going down. No one was injured in the third incident.

 

The Colorado Department of Transportation's reaction to the two previous accidents was bewildering, at best. The organization placed a stop-work order on the type of crane rather than the contractor or the entire project, making it seem as if the rough-terrain cranes alone posed a greater risk than any other equipment on the job or the workers operating them. Even after the order was placed, the local Colorado Springs' newspaper, The Gazette, reported that COSMIX crews were using front-end loaders to move the concrete barriers.

Over the summer, I asked Brad Closson, president of Craft Forensic Services, Bonita, Calif., if RT cranes pose a more serious risk than any other cranes. He noted that RTs tend to be given to less qualified operators because they are often smaller than other cranes on-site. However, lifting and positioning K-rails may have contributed more to the accidents. Although the barriers are similar in appearance, they are not necessarily the same weight per foot. “The lifts are repetitious, so operators go by the seat-of-their-pants more than the load chart,” Closson said. “It takes longer to reset-up than it does to extend out, so the temptation is to try the easy way first.”

 

In last week's accident, the crane, contractor, and application were different. “Each operation was doing something different,” a project manager told the local press. “So it's hard to say (if) they're related or not. You kind of scratch your head and wonder why we've had three.”

 

But had an investigation of the entire project • including all contractors involved • been performed six months ago, a third incident may never have occurred. Instead, the DOT previously blamed the RT crane for the accident and halted the use of these machines. This may have let under-qualified operators off the hook, and excused unsafe lifting practices.

 

Don't get me wrong • there are many skillful, well-trained crane operators running cranes across the country. And as the industry pushes for safer jobsites with more training and an increasing number of states continue to require crane operator certification, we can only expect the result to be even more educated crane operators. However, training and accountability needs to be at all levels of a company • from the equipment operators to the project owners.

 

After the third COSMIX crane accident, Rick Raef, a heavy construction safety consultant for Willis Group Holdings, San Francisco, called for a return to back-to-basics training and accountability for safety and safe crane management.

 

“Crane accidents like the three in Colorado Springs indicate a substantial need for a return to old school training in the tried and true virtues of weight, balance, gravity, the characteristics of various soil types, the effects of wind, and the basic ability to add and subtract among dozens of other subjects that have a direct effect on whether a crane stands or falls,” he said. “We tip our very humble hat and give recognition to the many fine qualified and experienced crane operators in the industry today. Unfortunately, in our travels we also still continue to see crane operators on machines with marginal training, a lack of experience, a diminished sense of danger and a sometimes frightening lack of mathematical ability, or even the ability to read and understand a load chart • or an operator's manual, for that matter.”

 

With hurry-up-and-get-it-done mentalities, Raef said individuals are put in charge of crane operations who have no basic understanding of what a crane needs in order to do the job, and they continue to try to make cranes accommodate the conditions of the job rather than make the job accommodate the specific needs of the crane.

 

As the investigations into the three COSMIX crane accidents continue, I urge the organizations conducting the investigations to look beyond the crane. Find out the operators' level of training; if they were pressured to get the job done more quickly than they felt comfortable; and if the cranes used were capable of handling the job. Find the source of the problem, and put an end to this series of accidents.