Labor Officials Seek to Toughen Nevada Crane Laws

July 3, 2008 • Nevada has some of the most strict construction crane laws in the country, but labor officials want them improved, according to an article in the Las Vegas Sun.

Pointing to the unprecedented cluster of cranes on the Las Vegas Strip, the spate of recent deaths in construction accidents and deadly crane collapses elsewhere in the country, the state AFL-CIO plans to ask the 2009 Legislature to change crane safety laws, the organization told the Las Vegas Sun.

 

“We've done a lot here, but you can never stop doing this stuff,” AFL-CIO chief Danny Thompson said in the article. “Whenever you have new problems, you have to go forward.”

 

The organization may try to include laws that require more training and new communication systems, but a group that represents contractors insists crane laws in Nevada are stringent enough and says it's likely to oppose new ones, the Sun reported.

 

Cranes were involved in three of the 12 construction fatalities on the Strip over just less than 19 months. But none of the accidents rivaled the dramatic crane failures recently in New York City and Miami, or the crane collapse that killed three people in 1994 in Laughlin.

 

Click here for the entire Sun article.