1
Watched a guy on a site near Austin botch a tandem pick last Wednesday
He was lifting a 40-foot steel beam with another crane and they totally missed the hand signal timing. The load swung like 6 feet before they got it under control. Has anyone else seen these new signal systems actually fix communication issues?
3 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In3 Comments
joseph_torres13d agoMost Upvoted
Jesus Christ, that's a hell of a way to start a Wednesday. I bet that beam had more control in its swing than the guy with the phone did. @jesse994 is right that the tech ain't the problem, it's the knucklehead behind the wheel. You can put a flag on the moon but you can't make people put down their damn phones for five minutes. Your mileage may vary, but I'd bet that guy was either texting or watching a video when that load went rogue.
5
jesse99415d ago
Jumping in here. I've seen those new radio-linked signal systems and honestly they work way better than hand signals for stuff like this. The real issue is still people not paying attention or rushing, not the tech itself.
3
sage_ramirez4215d ago
Yeah the "not paying attention" part hits home for me. I once stood at a job site waving my arms like a crazy person for a solid 30 seconds before I realized my crew was all watching me from behind a forklift. They thought I was doing some kind of morning stretch routine or something. The radio systems are great but they can't fix operator error when someone's scrolling their phone instead of listening. Hand signals are fine until you're the guy who accidentally told the crane operator to go left when you meant right and now there's a $5000 oopsie in the middle of the lot.
1