Work began on Thursday, August 12, 1993 with the loading of concrete pilings onto trucks for transport and delivery to a customer. The pilings measured 84 feet by 14 feet (25.6 meters by 35.6 centimeters) and weighed 17,136 pounds (7772.9 kilograms). Two pilings were loaded onto each truck. Two trucks loaded with pilings that had not yet been cored and accepted by the state inspector had to be unloaded and replaced.
While these were being unloaded, Employee #1 disregarded the foreman’s instructions and signaled the crane operator to place the rejected pilings at a different location in the stack. This would have expedited loading the acceptable pilings onto the trucks, but placed him and Employee #2 at risk. The temporarily stacked pilings shifted, pinning the two employees. Employee #1 died and Employee #2 was hospitalized.
What went wrong?
Proper procedures for working safely around cranes must be taught and re-taught. Some information is missing for this case. One person alone should be responsible signaling the crane operator, and usually would be the foreman. Why did Employee #1 signal the operator, and why did the operator take direction from someone other than the foreman? The failure to follow specific procedures for crane safety was, in this case, a fatal mistake.
Reprinted from Marine Construction Magazine Issue I. 2023
