Tower Crane drivers in Charlotte NC

[Longboom]

Hi all, I haven't been here for a spell. I got a question? Can some one tell me where tower crane companys find there operators? It has been my experience that they don't have many "Good Operators", I don't mean to take away from the good ones, but the ones I have worked around are nothing more than meat in a seat. I was on a job running a 238 linkbelt with 250ft of boom and me and the tower crane operator had checked to see the max boom angle I could have and still have clearance for him to pass over me with out colliding. We did this by radio. Well not two hours after doing that, I looked up and saw the tower coming wide ass open. I looked at my angle indicator and was 6deg. too high. I was hooked to a rebar mat on the ground. I thought surely he could see I was too high, but he kept coming. I figured,.. he must be able to see he was going to clear. WRONG, he never slowed down. He hit me swinging wide open. I have never in my 30 years in the seat seen a boom bend like that. He tore the jib in the tower all to pieces but the crane I was on took it like a man. But again I have never seen a lattice boom bend like that with out coming to the ground. It snatched the mat I was hooked to and just mowed a swath about 40 feet long level. If anyone had been in it's path it would have made hamburger out of them. I couldn't believe it when the operator called me on the radio and said.... sorry man I did see you. I couldn't get him on the radio just before he hit me. I told him he wasn't as sorry as he was gonna be when he got to the ground. He said really man I didn't see you! I never got to him before 3 iron workers wore his head out when he finally came down. But thats just once, I see these guys doing stupid crap day after day.

One day one tower hit another tower's hoist line and snatched a load of roof decking up off the roof as it was being landed, to the point that it pulled the hoist line over the end of the jib releasing it to slam back down from about 40 feet. A bundle of roof decking is about 4000lbs.

This has got to be the deadliest bunch of crack heads on the planet. And the biggest thing about it is,.... they think it's funny. As far as I can tell it's just a matter of time before the meat in a seat hiring practice of these companys will be there downfall. One more thing, The CCO license doesn't and shouldn't over ride experience. The guy said man I was looking down. LOL, I have run tower cranes myself and I ALWAYS look to the end of the jib before swinging. Doesn't everyone?

 

[heavylift]

never been hit.... but had some idiots on the other end of a 2 crane pick.....
we were setting an exchanger shell. when the ground guy signal swing away he went.. I think he push the swing lever as far as it would go. It set there and rattled against 2 other exchangers for abour 10 minutes.

I've seen a headache ball crawl over the top and fall about 100'... I heard rattle boom bang boom thud... and looked over to the crane next to me... his ball was laying about 15' away. the ball was about 2' dia. .... and his last pick was probably an hour before the ball incident. so I guessed the hoist lever was stuck

seen a 18 ton p&H nose over next to me... he tried to pick about 400lbs at 5 degrees.... fully extended with the manual and jib.. he got about 10 foot off the trailer then the slow motion thud.

last crane job I was on.... they hired a operator to help out.. as soon as he got in the crane I knew I'd be over there within 10 minute after they started pouring..
He jacked the first outrigger all the way up, then the next.... it couldn't have even been close to level.... his first swing of concrete looked like a clock pendlum...
He made about 3 swings before the super came over and got me...
I got on it started sucking in the boom... when they all started yelling we got get this poured.... I said it will be as soon as "I" set the crane up...

 

[willie59]

Longboom, you described a rather scary event. I'm seriously wondering if you should have reported it to OSHA. Seriously, think about it. After this event, and the unbelievable fortune that no one was hurt or killed, how are you yourself going to feel a few months down the road when one of these cowboys causes another event that results in a hand that doesn't get to go home and eat supper that night. If it were me right then...I'd feel pretty crappy. "Sorry...I didn't see ya" ain't gonna do much for the mans family. I was a crane operator years ago. And I've seen my share of crane accidents. Been in tight spots myself making a lift that made your butt draw up so tight you couldn't drive a nail in it with a sledge hammer. Yet, I never hurt/killed anyone, never did any damage to equipment or property. I'll remember till I die a sign I once saw. It was in my late teens. We were installing a rolling steel door at the 134th Air Refueling group airbase, in one of the hangers so the tail of the new KC135 refueler planes could go into the hanger where they performed repairs on them. There was a sign right above the header of the walk in door going into the hanger. It simply read "Zero Defects". I pondered such a short, simple message. And it occured to me; when they perform repairs on those planes, there is no room for not even one mistake, no defects. I found this same simple principle applies to operating a crane. There is no room for even one mistake when operating a crane because those mistakes "generally" have the potential to cause damage, injury, or death to any person on that site. I'm thankful, by the grace of God, it didn't happen this time on your jobsite. Be safe man.

 

[gggraham]

Longboom: I just fix heavy vehicles no crane experience at all....but I have been on plenty of sites over the years. Some of the **** I've seen in the last 5 years stuns me. Last year on a site the wind had to be about 50kph/30mph and some jackass was trying to crane a glass dome into place. I'm not a crane operator but I'd say it was a bad day to try and pick that dome. Well he got it up about 10 stories and swung around the wind started to come into play. This thing is swingin back and forth then it starts getting that looping swing to it. Everyone on site started moving around to the sheltered side of the building....peeking around the corner to see what the hell is going on. Don't ask me what the hell he did but he swings away from the building and this thing swings over the street and falls lucky the wind pushed it back from the road. Noone was hurt but when they went over to the crane the guy had jumped out and ran away. Made the local news, obviously noone around had a cam or it would have been on youtube.

 

[Knucklehead]

I have ZERO experience on a crane. I have done a few minor riggings on some crane projects, and I know my basic hand signals. However, I used to work for a Rail road contractor and we used excavators to do a lot of lifting. We once had 11 of us, all 330 up to 400 machines setting a switch with concrete ties. Anyhow, 1 of the biggest compliments I have ever got was from 1 of our ground men's wife's. She said that Jim would only rig up for me. I asked why. Her response was that before he walked in, we made eye contact, he watched me lock the machine out, and he watched me hold my hands up so he could see I was not on the levers. Yea it ALWAYS had me on the edge of my seat when someone is in that close to me., and for the life of me, I don't see how people can be so reckless with other peoples lives. That guy deserved to have his head wore out, He also deserved to have OSHA called on him,as well as anyone else who would listen!!!!!

 

[liebherr1160]

Thats not a great experience ..not at all ..I have worked with tower op's both of us have our own radio with our own frequency ..most are great ..call in to give a heads up ..as i do the same ..they are not all bad ..Others now holy crap ..they do own the sky ..
most rediculous comment was a tower op told me that the tallest crane has air right's...what ..everyone supposed to look up to you ...Nope ..it was quickly established that the lowest boom goes first other's can look down and see ..they are perched in a better location ....with a better panorama of event..
But it does take two to tangle ..often we will idle chat as not to lose contact with each other, general conversation during a mutual lull in the process's keeps both of us in step with what the other is doing ..
Frankly loss of contact means you stop .... part of the reason we stay in touch ....And most tower op's are more than obliged to carry a conversation with a fellow operator ..

All in all everyone got to go home ..busted pride and broken gear ..still better than a funeral ..

 

[TSK415]

I ran a crawler under two towers and got "tagged" once, he forgot I was there. I couldn't change the radio channel fast enough (bad radio setup). It was a slow motion sick feeling watching the boom move (with me not moving the stick). Lucky nothing happened, he remembered I was there after he moved. Look first, then move.

I have never seen a lattice boom bend like that with out coming to the ground

You ain't a kiddin' on that one!

 

[JDMGrading]

Ha, Funny longboom mentioned this. If I remember right the cranes were shutdown and a proper OSHA inspection was made. If this is the same incident that happened in Mooresville,NC. And also a little birdy told me that the tower crane company tried billing longbooms company $30,000 for that tower jib.

 

[Longboom]

Ha, Funny longboom mentioned this. If I remember right the cranes were shutdown and a proper OSHA inspection was made. If this is the same incident that happened in Mooresville,NC. And also a little birdy told me that the tower crane company tried billing longbooms company $30,000 for that tower jib.

Wrong Job JDMGrading. But it just goes to show you,... this kinda crap happens all the time around here. This happened to me in the South park area of Charlotte. As far as I know OSHA knows nothing about this one yet. LOL. When I first posted this I had the names of ALL the companies that were involved. After second thought I removed all the names because they all have bigger lawyers than I can afford.