My union hall showed me a stat about crane accidents that shocked me

I was at the union hall last Tuesday going through some safety training materials. There was a stat in there that said 80 percent of tower crane collapses happen during assembly or disassembly, not during normal operation. I always thought most accidents happened when lifting heavy loads or in bad weather. Turns out the real danger is when the crane is getting put up or taken down. I asked the instructor about it and he said a lot of guys rush those steps to save time. Has anyone else seen numbers like that in their own training?

2 comments

2 Comments

troy9967d ago

Had a buddy who nearly got crushed during disassembly. Rushed it bad.

hall.ruby6d ago

So why exactly is assembly and disassembly more dangerous if it's the one part of the job you can actually plan for? You're not fighting wind or load shifts like during operation, you're just following a step by step procedure. If 80 percent of collapses happen during setup and takedown, that sounds more like a training or supervision problem than an inherent hazard. The instructors and planners should be dictating the pace, not letting guys rush because they feel pressured. If anything, the stat shows how important it is to enforce the rules during those phases, not that assembly itself is some death trap. Stop blaming the process and start blaming the people skipping steps.