January 16th, 2009

Monteprandone, Itlay. A Tower Crane fell over after being contacted by a second crane on a neighboring job site. It would appear that neither crane have operators cabs on the top of the superstructure. So neither operator is reported as inured. However, there was a Grandmother and her Grandson whom were lucky in their escape of injury.

Even when you have two jobs that are not related to one another, but they have the cranes have potential of making contact, you need to give the operators a specific radio to inform one another what you are up to. When you'll be in the other guys airspace. I have substitute operated quite a bit. I recall one job where I showed up in the morning on a Saturday. The neighboring crane was idle and I was clear of it. It was a luffing crane I was in a saddle jib. I got rid of a load and due to the clearance while hoisting up (It was a tall crane) I start my swing going around the long way. I'm paying attention to my clearance so that I can reach top speed on the swing. I was working with Iron Workers and no one likes speed in their cranes more than Iron Workers. As I get clear with the hook and have reached top speed in my swing I look out horizontally and notice the neighboring crane is not only now working, he's in my airspace! Fortunately I was on an old PECCO 400 Tower Crane that had three swing motors to get me stopped quickly with counter swing. No note from the regular operator, no note from a bellman, no second radio. I nearly swung into another crane because there was no crane to crane contact and I had no idea that he could even reach into my airspace, let alone that they were going to be working. I had no normal reason to look up. When you are 300 feet up, what is going to get in your way?

A second radio is a critical reminder to pay attention. There may be information that the operators can share that will allow for effective use of the cranes together. Maybe it's that I'm going to be swinging in and out of your airspace for a while so swing in the long way. The second radio may look costly on paper, but you'll make it back up in speed, if not in avoiding wrinkled cranes.

Link to story.

Monteprandone, Italia crollo della gru a torre