Lifting Matters Issue 12 March 2010

12 LIFTING MATTERS March 2010

READERS LETTERS

Colonoscopy

All the organs of the body were having a meeting, trying to decide who was the one in charge.

"I should be in charge," said the brain , "Because I run all the body's systems, so without me nothing would happen."

"I should be in charge," said the blood , "Because I circulate oxygen all over so without me you'd all waste away."

"I should be in charge," said the stomach," Because I process food and give all of you energy."

"I should be in charge," said the legs, "because I carry the body wherever it needs to go."

"I should be in charge," said the eyes, "Because I allow the body to see where it goes."

"I should be in charge," said the rectum, "Because I'm responsible for waste removal."

All the other body parts laughed at the rectum and insulted him, so in a huff, he shut down tight.

Within a few days, the brain had a terrible headache, the stomach was bloated, the legs got wobbly, the eyes got watery, and the blood was toxic. They all decided that the rectum should be the boss.

The Moral of the story? Even though the others do all the work....

The ass hole is usually in charge !

Dear Sir,

I have just read the editorial artical (sic) in the latest edition iof (sic) 'Lifting Matters'. In the second paragraph there is a statement, see below, that is incorrect and misleading;

"Under the standard, cranes are required to be checked periodically every three months, with major certification and refurbishment compulsory at 10 years for mechanical and 25 years for structural inspection to assess their suitability for continued safe operation."

I have reproduced the actual wording from Section 7 of AS 2550.1

7.3.5 Major inspection

The following cranes shall be subjected to a major inspection to assess their suitability for continued safe operation:

(a) Cranes that have reached the end of their design life or, where this is unknown, after 25 years for the structure and 10 years for the mechanical components.

NOTES:

1. A crane’s design life may not be the same as its actual life and depends on such factors as its classification, usage and its operating environment.

As can be seen the limiting factor is the 'Design Life' of the crane not a calendar period. A particular crane may not reach its 'Design Life' for a period exceeding 50 years depending on its usage or conversely a crane that is used in a high intensity application may reach its 'Design Life' before it is 10 years old.

It is therefore important, in my view, that crane owners and regulators have a clear understanding of what AS 2550 actually states, not the simplistic statement given in the publication provided, because it could lead to serious accident/s if a crane exceeds its design life and remains in service because of a misunderstanding. This may lead also to an expensive lesson if such a matter proceeded to a prosecution after an accident.

Regards

Rex Clark

Past Chairman of the ME/5 sub-comittee (sic) responsible for development of AS 2550

(Letter shortened due to space consideration—RDP)

To err is human; to blame it on somebody else is even more human.” - John Nadeau

LIFTING MATTERS March 2010 1

LIFTING MATTERS Published in the interest of promoting safety in the crane industry

Sharing and Learning

MARCH 2010


EDITORIAL

The world appears to be recovering from the economic crises it has gone through over the past year

in particular amongst the banking sector. That recovery has still to be felt however, in the crane

rental market where some companies have been forced to implement severe cutback measures and

the laying off of valuable staff to be able to survive until more prosperous times return once again.

All recessions eventually end, and when this one does, industry must once again struggle with the

issue of how to attract people into the construction industry and keep them there in rewarding ca-

reers. When business does rebound hopefully by the end of 2010, the companies that have made

great sacrifices to hold onto their skilled people during the recession will be in the best position to

take advantage of it.

Young people are especially vulnerable in the workplace. Across Australia, 18-24 year olds are at

least 50% more likely to be hurt at work than older people, and young people are also more likely to

suffer from an occupational illness says the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work.

According to Canadian research, young, inexperienced workers are over five times more likely to be

injured during their first four weeks of employment than other workers. And it's not just accidents that

young workers are vulnerable to: they are also at risk from more slowly-developing occupational

health problems.

So despite the worldwide recession there will be many young people starting work across all indus-

tries and services and they must be trained to be able to avoid accidents and ill health.

There are many reasons why young workers are at risk. But they are all things that we can do some-

thing about. Employers, educators, health and safety professionals, policy makers, and young work-

ers themselves - all have a responsibility to help keep young people safe and healthy.

There’s a real good cross section of articles this month. Space does not allow me to introduce them.

So much to learn from the errors of others.

Your opinion and any queries and wishes you may have are extremely important to us! Let us know

what's on your mind. Please send your contributions to [email protected] or contact us

by phone on +61 7 3907 5800. (RDP)

IN THIS ISSUE

Editorial 02

City centre death wish 03

Wind turbine accident in Germany 03

Marine Safety forum: Lifting incident 04

Crane rolls 04

Safety Alert: unsafe lifting 05

Dropped Crane Stinger 06

Irish Safety Advice 07

Who trained him then 07

New York crane owner to be charged 08

Loading accident 09

Safety Alert: EWP controls malfunction 09

Tower crane collapse in Israel 10

Double death wish 10

Overhead pendant operated crane fatality 11

Mobile crane tip in Dampier 11

Readers Letters 12

Colonoscopy 12

ON THE COVER

Two Mobile

U n i v e r s a l

C r a n e s

were used

to lift and

replace the

axles on a

68T Tam-

per Ma-

chine for

Queensland

Rail, in the

Banyo Rail yard.

One was a DEMAG AC-100 (100t All Terrrain)

which used 24T of counterweight and 17m of

main boom.

The other was a DEMAG AC-120 (120t All

Terrain) which also used 24T of counterweight

and approx 17m of main boom.


Operations & Engineering

Safety Communication Note

SCN No: O&E/H&S/SCN/048 Date of Issue: January 2010 Location: Non-IPR Location Notice Title: Overhead Pendant Operated Crane Fatality

SUMMARY OF INCIDENT

We have been informed indirectly by the Lifting Equipment Engineers Association (LEEA) of the out-come of an investigation into a fatality involving an overhead pendant operated crane. The investigation was carried out by the UK H&S regulatory body. Details of the location have been withheld.

The event is described as a person being crushed between the load and a fixed object. This resulted from an unplanned movement of the crane, which was operated via a hanging pendant controller.

The investigation concluded that the most likely cause was that the operator placed the pendant control on top of the load during a temporary pause

in the lifting operation and when the pendant was on top of the load, a button on the pendant was unin-tentionally depressed by a projection on the load, which caused the unplanned movement of the crane.

RECOMMENDATIONS

The UK H&S regulatory body is requesting (via LEEA), that designers and suppliers of cranes take action as below:

Ensure that instruction manuals make explicit that pendant controls should only ever be hung and not placed onto objects,

Suppliers should explain what actions an operator should take in the event of a temporary pause in a lifting operation if they need to let go of the pendant, for example to check the slings or take a break,

Suppliers should take reasonably practicable steps to supply existing customers with the above information,

Designers should review and revise, as appropri-ate, pendant control design, such as shrouding individual controls, or requiring 2 hand control for operation.

Whilst the above is aimed at crane suppliers, Interna-tional Power has such equipment in use at power stations and it is recommended that the above infor-mation is disseminated to those persons who oper-ate such equipment.

MOBILE CRANE TIP IN DAMPIER

A reader sent in some photos of a hydraulic crane that tipped over on a wharf in Dampier

near Karratha, WA. It would appear as if the slew ring lock pin was disengaged and

with the outriggers in, it was only going to go one way—and that was over!

Article supplied by Jason Taylor [[email protected]]

RDP

“Obviously a major malfunction."

Steve Nesbitt, NASA public affairs officer, Jan. 28, 1986, shortly after the

space shuttle Challenger exploded.


Rudeness is a weak man's imitation of strength. - Eric Hoffer (1902-1983)

Just because something is common sense doesn't mean it's common practice. - unknown

Red sky at night, shepherd's delight; red sky in the morning, shepherd take warning. - unknown

Double Death Wish

February 8, 2010

Spotted in Austria recently, a man working on an outside lamp committing at least two if not three sins that could so easily end in tears.

The lamp is almost nine metres/30ft from the ground and the job is short.. so what does he use to reach it? A 10 metre trailer lift? A 12 metre boom lift? A 10 metre scissor lift?

Not at all, he makes do with a Genie GS1930 – an indoor eleva-tor scissor lift with maximum working height of 25ft/7.5 metres. First of all he leaves it on the delivery trailer ….sin one, or per-haps using an indoor machine outside is sin one? then to get the extra bit of height he stands on the guardrail.

One assumes that he did in fact survive the job in spite of setting the odds against himself.

http://www.vertikal.net/en/news/story/9540/

Tower crane collapse in Israel

February 5, 2010

A tower crane has collapsed at a construction site in Hod Hasharon, central Israel seriously injuring the 55 year old operator.

A 20 year old tractor driver also died at the scene, but it is unclear if he was in his vehicle at the time and how it relates to the crane accident. Local reports say that the crane collapsed from its base and that the weather was very stormy at the time with strong winds.

The jib of the crane came down on two rows of shops but there were fortunately no injuries reported on the ground. At this stage there are no other details of what actually happened.


The fallen crane

The badly damaged crane cab The Jib came down across two set of buildings

Using an indoor unit outside, using it on a trailer and then standing on the

guardrails - what an idiot!


Wind turbine accident in Germany 8 March, 2010

A serious crane accident in Northern Germany in-volving the dropping of a large turbine rotor has been reported.

The accident involved a 1,200 tonne Liebherr LTM11200-9.1 erecting a large wind turbine in Hen-nickendorf in Brandenburg at the end of last week.

Reports are sketchy and the photos we have re-ceived do not show a great deal of detail. However local news stations say that a violent and unex-pected gust of wind caused the rotor to take- off pulling the crane's boom and Jib with it, causing it to collapse. The boom, jib and rotor with its blades came crashing to the ground.

The crane remained stable but the turbine compo-nents are totally destroyed along with the crane's boom and jib.

It was purchased specifically for wind turbine erec-tion and was only delivered towards the end of last year.

The men working on the ground were able to scram-ble to safety and were unhurt, however there are reports that the crane operator may have been in-jured while jumping from his cab, and photographs suggest that part of the crane's boom fell onto the cab almost destroying it.


City centre Death Wish

January 26, 2010

We received the following photos from a reader who had received them from a cus-tomer. It looks like a typical UK town centre and was apparently taken recently.

It looks as though the man balancing on the forks in the busy pedestrian precinct is plan-ning to work on the street lights. If so, one assumes that this is the ultimate responsibil-ity of the local government?

While using a forklift as an access platform is still way too common in most cases we see the protagonists at least use a pallet or something to stand on and tend to do it inside.

This case is amazing in that on a damp looking winter’s day when the forks are likely to be slippery our man has made no attempt to create a makeshift platform. On top of that he is working in public with no attempt to cordon off, if he slips he not only puts his life at risk, but could land on someone below.

Even if he did not land on someone a fall from that height would cause incredible distress to passers who might witness the resulting mess. Without doubt a Death Wish.

Standing on a forklift in the city centre


The crane remained stable

Part of the crane's boom appears to have struck the cab


Crane rolls January 28, 2010

An operator escaped injury yesterday after his crane rolled down an embankment near Craven Arms in Shropshire, UK. The 40 tonne All Terrain crane was travelling on an unclassified road behind Stokesay Castle when it got stuck and then rolled, coming to rest upside down.

The 54 year-old operator was in the carrier cab when it rolled but escaped uninjured.

The crane, which is owned by Direct Crane Hire of Sandbach, Cheshire, was heading for a sewage treatment plant to carry out a lift for contractors Black and Veatch, at a site owned by Severn Trent.


Marine Safety Forum – Safety Flash 02/10 Issued: 2nd February 2010

Subject: Lifting Incident

During the offload of a supply vessel the squad members were about to lift a riser joint from the deck of the vessel, they attached the riser which was 45ft in length and weighing approx 17-18 ton. The slings were placed directly onto the crane safety hook, the riser which was heavy at one end due to a double flange came up at a angle, one end was still on the deck whilst the other was approx 5ft off the deck. As the sling stretched (due to the angle) it became detached from the hook resulting in the riser falling back onto the deck.

HAZARDS IDENTIFIED

Potential injury due to incorrect slinging of lift (sling position and weight distribution

Potential injury due to failure to recognise potential hazard

Potential injury due to inadequate supervision of lifting operation

REQUIRED CONTROLS

• Reaffirm the safe standards for lifting/slinging operations; all relevant personnel must be aware

of their responsibility to fully assess lifts prior to offloading.

• Squad Members must exercise their right to “STOP THE JOB” if they think it’s unsafe.

• Live Safe Conversation (Toolbox Talk) to be re-visited if concerns are raised.

• Managers / Supervisors: Please discuss within your respective areas of responsibility.

Risers pre-slung Re-enactment of sling position

Article submitted by [email protected]

The crane came to rest upside down


Loading accident

February 2, 2010

Two cars crashed into a boom lift as it was being unloaded in a busy street in Delray Beach, Florida.

The large telescopic boom lift was being unloaded in the dark at around 05:30 in the morning and was reportedly crossing the highway when the cars crashed into the lift.

Amazingly those involved only suffered minor injuries. Vertikal Comment Loading or unloading equipment on a busy highway, particularly in the dark is highly dangerous and should only be attempted after cordoning off the area behind the truck with well lights as well as cones or barriers. There have been a number of fatalities in recent years while unloading aerial lifts, cranes and telehandlers.


Most of the damage to the boom was on the platform

SAFETY ALERT

Issued by: Health Safety and Environment Number 31: 28 January 2010 Elevated work platform (EWP) RF causes controls to malfunction

Background

An incident occurred where a hired elevated work platform’s electric controls malfunctioned due to EMI (electromagnetic interference) from a nearby mobile base station antennas. EMI can also occur near other strong electromagnetic fields (EMFs), for example broad-casting towers, high voltage towers.

The malfunction occurred at RF field levels well below the occupa-tional exposure limit so Radman personal RF monitors will not pro-vide a pre warning of a potential malfunction.

Current Telstra Fleet leased items are not impacted by EMI as they utilise hydraulic controls.

Actions

Managers of employees required to use EWPs near mobiles base stations or broadcast facilities.

1. Check with the Hire Company whether the equipment has EMI shielding on electric controls and has

emergency hydraulic controls. Units with mechanical (hydraulic) controls are not impacted.

2. Where the equipment may be impacted by EMI (where in doubt, assume equipment is impacted), ensure:

a. For radio sites, as much as possible that work is not undertaken inside strong EMFs by either

• shutting-down or powering-down the RF transmitter for the relevant antenna sector; or

• positioning away from the RF field (for example, work in areas under the public exposure limit for

radio-frequency radiation, i.e., outside the yellow zone on radiation hazard drawings.

b. All team members can operate emergency controls to facilitate rescue in the event of failure of the

controller.

Director Health Safety and Environment Article supplied by Andy Maloney [[email protected]]


New York Crane owner expected to be charged with manslaughter

in 2008 Upper East Side crane Collapse

The owner of the city's largest construction

crane company is expected to be indicted

for manslaughter in the death of two work-

ers killed in an upper East Side disaster

nearly two years ago, James Lomma, owner

of New York Crane and Equipment Co., and

a top aide identified only as Tubor, could be

charged by Manhattan District Attorney

Cyrus Vance as early as Monday, sources

familiar with the investigation told The

News.

Lomma, whose companies have contracts

at Ground Zero and dozens of other sites

around the city, owned two massive tower

cranes that collapsed in 2008 -- one on E.

51st St. on March 15, the other on E. 91st

St. On May 30 --killing a total of nine people.

Lomma is being charged only in connection with

the deaths of the two workers killed at 333 E. 91st St. disaster, the sources said.

The District Attorney's office declined to discuss the case. Lomma is the only person to be prose-

cuted so far in connection with the crane disaster deaths. A building inspector, Edward Marquette,

was indicted for faking inspection of Lomma's crane on E. 51st St.

The dual collapses forced the resignation of Buildings Commissioner Patricia Lancaster and ex-

posed bribery, corruption and incompetence in the troubled agency's cranes unit. In the E. 91st St.

tragedy, the 30-ton monster crane snapped and crashed in a roar on the street, leaving crane opera-

tor Donald Leo, 30, and worker Ramaden Kurtaj, 27, dead in a tangle of steel and broken concrete.

Shortly after that collapse, the Manhattan district attorney's office seized records and computers

from Lomma's offices and launched a probe into whether the collapse was caused by a shoddy weld

that failed, causing the crane cab to shear off from the tower mast. As the district attorney's investi-

gation moved forward, the Daily News reported that the Chinese company New York Crane hired to

do the welding tried to beg off the project because it was not qualified but ultimately relented when

Lomma coughed up more money. The Chinese company agreed to do the job faster and cheaper

than responsible competitors.

Problems with the doomed crane surfaced a year before the collapse, when workers at a different

job site found a crack in its turntable. The city ordered work stopped and the crane dismantled. Beth-

any Klein, then head of the Building Department's cranes & derricks unit, revoked the crane's oper-

ating papers. But, despite Klein's reservations, the Buildings Department cleared the crane and

approved its set up at 91st St. Within weeks of the collapse, Michael Carbone, the inspector who

approved the set up, was suspended for neglect of duty. Leo, the crane operator, was set to marry

three weeks before he died. His father, Donald Sr., also a crane operator, called Lomma's prosecu-

tion "a house of cards that is about to fold." "In answer to the question about how I feel about Jimmy

Lomma being taken away in handcuffs, I say it's a start and about time. It will never bring my son

back...but it might finally be the beginning of paying real attention to the safety of workers who risk

their lives to feed their families." Lomma, who lives in a million-dollar home in Staten Island, was a

major force in New York construction and an influential advisor to the city Buildings Department. As

a member of the agency's cranes advisory board, he helped draft rules and regulations that gov-

erned his own operations and those of his competitors. He has owned contracting businesses in

New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and North Carolina, records show.

At the time of the disasters, he owned 11 of the 25 tower cranes in operation in the city.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2010/03/05/2010-03-

Investigators sift through the devastation for clues in the May 30, 2008 crane collapse on E. 91st St.



Dropped Crane Stinger

Incident Date: 20 April 2004 Incident Time: 09.10

CSG: Petroleum Site: WA-255-P Country: Australia

Incident classification: Near Miss

Actual consequence severity rating: L1

Potential Consequence Severity Rating: L4 Fatality

Causes: (Why did the incident occur?)

The hook opened when the safety latch of the Type BK 22-8 Gunne XN2 hook fitted to the whip line swung back against its own frame

(see photo-1).

Contributing Factors:

Additional causal factors)

Design of Type BK 22-8 Gunne XN2 hook in service did not protect the latch lock-ing mechanism from impact events.

Description

The starboard crane had a stinger at-tached to the whip line hook (Type BK 22-8 Gunne XN2).

After landing a load, the crane with stinger attached (no load) was being slewed round to the boom cradle when the hook unexpectedly opened.

The stinger fell ~15 metres and landed on top of the riser sections racked on the pipe deck.

No persons were in the vicinity nor was there any property damage.

Note 1: The stinger assembly weighs ~40kg and consists of the gather (or master) ring, a 5-metre wire sling and a

BK hook/shackle fitting on the bottom.

Causes: (Why did the incident occur?)

The hook opened when the safety latch of the Type BK 22-8 Gunne XN2 hook fitted to the whip line swung back against

its own frame (see photo-1).

Contributing Factors: (Additional causal

factors)

Design of Type BK 22-8 Gunne XN2 hook in service did not protect the latch locking mechanism from impact events.

Uncontrolled swinging of whip line

without load.

Photo 1 / Drawing 1 Type BK 22-8 Gunne XN2 hook shown back on it’s own frame with weight on safety latch enabling disengagement of lock mechanism.

Photo 2 / Drawing 2 - Post event solution 1) The Type BK 22-8 Gunne XN2 hook was removed from the whip line. 2) The Gather (or Master) ring was connected directly to the whip line fitting under the headache ball.

Pre and Post Incident Whip Line / Stinger Configuration

Top of Stinger

Safety Latch Mechanism

Gather Ring

Whip line under

headache ball


Who trained him then?

Thanks to a reader visiting a small harbour in Cornwall in Decem-ber where he watched a few men use a forklift to replace a har-bour wall timber and then an unusual suspended work platform to secure it.

Key Learning’s:

Enquiries determined this type of event has occurred

numerous times in the industry yet we are still learn-ing by incident.

The manufacturer of the Type BK 22-8 Gunne XN2

hook can provide them with safety latch protectors (lugs) to reduce the likelihood of this event occurring (Note: must specifically request this when ordering)

(see photo 3).

Always look at work systems to identify better solu-

tions (ie. in this case, the hook below the whip line is able to be removed entirely from the assembly con-figuration with minimal operational impact).

Actions: (immediately / ongoing)

Immediate Actions Taken

Crane stopped and whip line lowered to deck for examination - hook found in latched position.

Port crane hook was checked and found in good condition also.

The Gather (or Master) ring was connected directly to the whip line fitting under the headache ball (see photo 2).

Safety meeting held to inform all personnel.

Ongoing Corrective Actions

Consult with crane manufacturer to determine merit of extending the length of the pennant wire

under the headache ball to negate the need to attach stingers.

Permanent Corrective Actions

Standardise stinger assembly configuration across all contracted rigs.

http://www.vertikal.net/fileadmin/journals/ca/2009/

Photo 3

Safety latch

Irish Safety Advice

To be safe and stay injury free,

There’s a way that your worksite must be.

Well set up, and inspected, With no hazard neglected.

Do-It-Right, That your Best Guarantee.

Don Merrell

[email protected]

Article supplied by [email protected]

An unusual makeshift platform finishes the job.

mailto:[email protected]

Lifting Matters Issue 12 March 2010

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Transcript of Lifting Matters Issue 12 March 2010