As we looked at in last week’s post, crane operators could easily feel like they have to be a super hero to do their jobs. But super heroes don’t leave things to chance, they observe, they prepare and they take action. In order to be a Super Craneman, one must also be a safe craneman. One of the most important tasks required to prevent crane accidents is to recognize job site hazards and one of the easiest ways to do this is to perform a Job Safety Analysis (JSA) before even sitting in the seat.
A JSA helps to bring the crane/lifting team together to integrate accepted safety and health principles and practices into a particular task or job operation and look for ways to reduce exposure to identified hazards. Here are some guidelines: (more…)
One could say a good operator must have eyes in the back of their head, they must be an expert soils analyst, they must be capable of reading detailed site plans to determine the location of underground utilities, they must have a weather alert set up for adverse conditions, they must be a policeman capable of keeping people out from under their loads and away from swinging machinery, they must have night vision when working in dimly lit conditions, and they must anticipate everyone’s moves around their machine, much like a mind reader. 
It is not uncommon for decks of mobile cranes to be slippery from grease or have other possible trip hazards that may not be easily seen when inspecting equipment. Inspectors must be aware of these risks when performing inspections, but it doesn’t mean that Crane Tech can’t provide a safe environment for them to learn the detailed skill of mobile crane inspection. In an effort to provide that additional layer of safety, Crane Tech installed a Personal Fall Arrest System (PFAS) for use by our hands-on mobile crane inspector students. The PFAS allows up to four (4) students to move freely on the deck of our mobile cranes, knowing that should they slip (or even move too fast) the retractable lifeline will lock in place to help prevent injury. 
