:: rawblogXport ::

:: Sunday, October 30, 2005 ::

Cranes use precision on performing arts center's roof - By GEORGE BRYSON, Anchorage Daily News
When the people who operate construction cranes get together to share war stories at the Web site craneaccidents.com, their chosen profession begins to sound a bit like a federal safety administrator's worst nightmare.

The fatality rate is significant, especially for their co-workers -- the riggers and signalmen and forklift operators who labor beneath the cranes -- and smashed fingers are hardly rare.

But the kind of accident that can sometimes befall the careless or unlucky crane operator himself could hardly be more dramatic. Electrocution by power lines. Cranes toppling from too much weight. Flash fires. Cranes knocked over by a sudden gust of wind. Lightning strikes.

'I've never been on a crane that's been hit by lightning,' Capener said. 'When you can easily put it down, why not?'

(Because, one correspondent at craneaccidents.com reported, some autocratic job foreman who didn't think the lightning was all that close refused to interrupt a continuous pour of cement.)

posted 7:01 AM :: reference link :: 0 comments ::

-------------------------------------------