RE: Assuming accident Crane operator’s fault & not occur if they were licensed?
No of course I am not leaping ahead of experts and saying it was operator’s fault or that something as simple as license would prevent large number of the growing number of Crane accidents – anymore than giving an idiot a drivers license isnt going to stop him from having an accident.
What I am saying is that its obvious no one is overseeing this industry, monitoring the level of experience or abilities if they arent even requiring testing or license for Cranes in over 35 states! And just for the record you can see that the Houston Crane incident that killed 4 people & injured 7 WAS ruled to be the fault of Contract Crane operator. Several of the OSHA 100 incidents appear to be operator error also – so draw your own conclusions.
Accidents are bad enough when they are near misses or people are hurt – here is Crane industry that has been KILLING people at rate higher than previous decades of operation. I dont care what the reason is – just that its a big safety risk for anyone in any industry where Cranes operate given the reach of the equipment and experience level it shoult take. A license is just the first step to show that someone at least gives a crap these machines are killing people – full step is making sure they get full operator training, get license & at same time have to go through a rigrious safety training as well. Bus & Truck drivers do it, anyone in refinery that has operate any kind of heavy equipment do it.
I think the larger problem is that Contract workers are not made to operate at safety level our refinery workers are – Valero so far has been the only one to drag frontline workers inside the safety sphere. Lot Companies make company managers go thorough the safety programs – but they are not frontline workers and lot times big construction companies like Bechtel do subcontracting like they did in Pt Arthur with Becon subsidary for Crane work.
When you look at collective deaths around the US in all the states – the Crane industry & operators have a horrible track record of making sure everyone gets go home alive. I am not putting all operators in the same bag – obviously they were doing a lot better job 15-20 years ago but that was before outsourcing, Construction companies handling people on jobs like surplus inventory you add & fire after the job is done or Refineries & other industries closing thier saftey envelope around thier people & expecting Contractors to do the same. Well obviously the Crane industry isnt doing that & unless regulations step up for them getting inside refinery gates they will keep on killing thier & our folks.
Regards
