The circumstances of Thursday's fatal San Diego Freeway crane accident, in which several witnesses said that the crane was not properly stabilized, raises again the question of whether construction cranes are sufficiently inspected and regulated.
Such accidents have occurred numerous times throughout California, often with tragic results. But the issue began to receive more widespread attention in the wake of a San Francisco accident last Nov. 28 in which a crane plunged 19 stories to the ground, killing five people.
For the Record
Los Angeles Times Saturday January 20, 1990 Home Edition Metro Part B Page 3 Column 6 Metro Desk 2 inches; 38 words Type of Material: Correction
Crane accident--A story in Friday's editions of The Times incorrectly reported that the firm of Swinerton & Walberg was in charge of a San Francisco project on which a crane was shut down for safety violations. That crane was not being used in a project managed by the company.
A subsequent inspection of nine other cranes operating in San Francisco by the state's worker safety agency, Cal/OSHA, resulted in six of the cranes being shut down for violating safety standards. One of the cranes in violation was operated by the same company that operated the fallen crane, Swinerton & Walberg, and was located only three blocks from the crash site.
Cal/OSHA is still investigating the cause of that crash as well as Thursday's accident, in which a construction crane loading material onto a flatbed truck near the San Diego Freeway toppled onto the vehicle's cab, crushing the driver to death.
Assemblyman Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica), chairman of the Assembly Labor and Employment Committee, who earlier this week said he will introduce legislation to more tightly regulate cranes, on Thursday criticized the fact that Cal/OSHA had cited the operator of the crane involved in the San Diego Freeway incident several times during the last 10 years but never imposed a fine. A Cal/OSHA spokesman said none of the crane citations were categorized as "serious."
Last week, the state Senate Industrial Relations Committee approved a bill by Sen. Bill Greene (D-Los Angeles) requiring licensing of crane operators through a new state Crane Licensing Board. The same proposal has periodically been offered in the Legislature since the mid-1980s without success. The bill would require written examinations and field tests for crane operators.
In Los Angeles, crane operators have been required since 1964 to pass a test and be licensed.
Hayden's legislation, written to supplement Greene's, would require safety inspections of cranes to be performed more frequently and more independently.
Currently, high-rise cranes, which must be certified when they are erected and then annually if they are still on the job, can be certified by private inspectors designated by Cal/OSHA. However, these inspectors are often employees of crane manufacturers or have financial ties to them, critics say.
