Safety

IPAF welcomes the position paper issued by the FEM Product Group for Cranes and Lifting Equipment, which states that cranes should not be used for lifting people, except in exceptional circumstances where safety requirements have been fulfilled and undertaken at the specific responsibility of the user.

New figures published in the UK this week show the number of employees killed in the UK construction industry last year has increased for the first time in four years. The Health and Safety Executive has released provisional data for the year to March 2011 which shows the number of workers killed was 50, an increase on the previous year, when 41 died – the majority on smaller construction sites. This is the first rise in deaths since 2006/7 when there were 79 fatalities .

Small employers and owner/operators of cranes are at a distinct disadvantage when it comes to complying with OSHA’s new Cranes and Derricks in Construction rule. To a degree, it’s simply a manpower issue—these individuals have to wear many hats besides crane owner and operator, including salesperson, accountant, and safety director.

Lifting Technologies, headquartered in Missoula, Montana has a nice working relationship with Industrial Training International. They supply crane suspended manbaskets at ITI Training Centers in Woodland, Washington and Memphis, Tennessee while hundreds of project engineers, operators, and riggers utilize them each year in crane and rigging training programs.

A crane operator is in an intensive-care hospital unit after receiving an electric shock, when the boom of his crane contacted overhead power lines in Toronto, Canada yesterday.

The man, said to be in his 30s, sustained second-degree burns to his arms but his injuries are not life-threatening.

The International Sign Association’s successful Mobile Crane Operator Safety Certification Training is now available for direct delivery. ISA member companies and non-members simply need to register a minimum number of employees to participate in the certification training and ISA will bring and conduct the program to any location.

The Specialized Carriers & Rigging Association announces session topics for its Crane & Rigging Workshop, to be held Sept. 21-23, 2011 at the Sheraton Philadelphia City Center, Philadelphia, Pa. For more information, go to the Meetings section at www.scranet.org.

A crane working in Elburg, the Netherlands, dropped an old boat after the web slings broke in a similar manner to the recent accident in Ireland, where the failure of a set of slings dropped a ferry in to water.

The Ontario Ministry of Labour announced Monday its inspectors will conduct a safety blitz this month of construction sites with tower cranes, checking access and fall arrest equipment, plus inspection records and certification of operators.

The company has won two safety awards from the Specialized Carriers & Rigging Association (SC&RA). The first was the Crane & Rigging Zero Accident Award. This award is for members that complete the year without a single accident.