Crane flips, operator bails out

[dirt ditch]

Holy cow! That's one of those gotta change the shorts moments for the crane operator.

 

[cartod]

Another OSHA reportable moment.

 

[jimpen]

The operator was da*n lucky in his jump.

Story told too me years ago. Don't know how true.

A loaded cement truck was going up to a town outside of Denver. The road was one that followed the side of a mountain and basically had sheer drops on one side and cliff on the other. His brakes failed on one of the downhill slopes. Straight off the cliff to the bottom. It landed perfectly nose down and the cement barrel opened up like petals on a flower. It pretty much covered the whole front of the truck. The mourners hired a couple of climbing experts to take his mom down and affix a memorial plaque to the cement.

That was all they could really do.

 

[2458n]

We call them operating engineers. You as the operator are responsible for the lift. They can give you fake weights and distances and you are the one held responsible. You also have the right to shut the job down if you do not want to make the lift. He was booming down to get the dozer away from the wall and the distance from the center pin became to great and over she went. With the hyd. crane you can not let it free fall like you could on the old riggs that had a clutch. As noted he should have picked it up and done a test lift at the distance needed on the top side keeping the load barely off the ground- then if the crane raises up it only drops the dozer alittle. I have seen picks where the dozer was chained onto the front of the crane to give it more counter weight. All new cranes have computers that will shut the controls off when you get in a off the chart area. It is when you overide these safety devices that you as the operator go to jail for killing someone. It is a great job and pays well- for a reason.

 

[FTG-05]

I remember being in charge of a team over a decade ago that was responsible for moving a piece of space flight hardware for the International Space Station.

I could not believe the things we had to do to pick up a 400 lb piece of crated hardware. For example, to certify the crane for that lift, we had to lift a 4k lb piece of concrete and hold it for a minute (+/-).

Big change from the early days of the Space Station when someone dropped a +$1M carbon dioxide removal assembly off the back of a lift gate. The operator was summarily fired. That specific CDRA was refurbed by AiResearch (now Honeywell) and, as far as I know, it is still working in the 4755 building at Marshal Space Flight Center.

 

[SPYDERLK]

Ballast, ballast, ballast ... and solid earth (or blocking) under the stabilizers.

We call them operating engineers. You as the operator are responsible for the lift. They can give you fake weights and distances and you are the one held responsible. You also have the right to shut the job down if you do not want to make the lift. He was booming down to get the dozer away from the wall and the distance from the center pin became to great and over she went. With the hyd. crane you can not let it free fall like you could on the old riggs that had a clutch. As noted he should have picked it up and done a test lift at the distance needed on the top side keeping the load barely off the ground- then if the crane raises up it only drops the dozer alittle. I have seen picks where the dozer was chained onto the front of the crane to give it more counter weight. All new cranes have computers that will shut the controls off when you get in a off the chart area. It is when you overide these safety devices that you as the operator go to jail for killing someone. It is a great job and pays well- for a reason.

Working way too near the edge of the Physics involved. And you could tell they knew it by their excruciating care. Misjudged their microscopic safety factor. -- They needed a pressure gauge on the stabilizers that were unloading/lifting.
larry

 

[Rock knocker]

Ballast, ballast, ballast ... and solid earth (or blocking) under the stabilizers.

A crane comes with the counter weight it comes with. You can't add counterweight to lift more, except with the manufacturers permission or options. The blocking seem fine. A pretty simple case of booming down with too much of a load

 

[BlacknTan]

If the Operator was strapped in, he may have been killed. Give me the freedom, and mobility to jump .... Government, stay outta my life!!!

 

[Thomas]

After moment as such operator should go out buy lotto ticket..lucky.

 

[Scooby074]

*Cheesy Russian Accent on*
In Soviet Russia, crane computer for sissys...
*Accent off*