The data show "that many lifting operations were likely doomed before they even began," writes Ray A. King, the study's author. Crane operators, lift directors and site supervisors were also listed as the most responsible parties. Some experts argue that poor planning is a factor in every lifting accident.

"If you have a good plan, you expect a good outcome," explains Stephen K. Rammelsberg, a design engineer for CB&I in Plainfield, Ill., and one of the roughly two-dozen members of the P30 development committee. Engineers go about planning lifts in various ways. The goal is "to try to make it a little more consistent throughout the industry," he adds.

More owners are requiring lift plans, and industrial clients in oil, gas, petrochemical and other high-risk sectors are helping to lead the charge. Don F. Jordan, lifting expert at BP America in Houston and a P30 member, says fewer projects "are done on an impulse. We're moving to where we can still do emergency work but with a certain level of planning." One critical-lift factor that P30 may include is adverse commercial impact, which is a major risk in lifting but ignored in the existing literature. "It's never been a trigger point that we've put into a national publication," says Parnell. "We've decided to do it because it's reality." Hoisting over the public is also a trigger.

Not all experts have embraced the idea of a standard. In 2008—a watershed year for ">crane accidents—Michael W. Mills, a specialist for Liberty Mutual Group, was flooded with client requests for guidance on planning lifts. He found nothing, so he asked the ASME B30 committee on lifting to develop a standard. They turned him down. "They just didn't think it was a good fit," says Mills, who is now the P30 committee's vice chairman. The group began meeting in September 2010.

The document still has some hoops to jump through, but it is expected to be out by the end of 2013. Matthew Gardiner, a senior engineer at Haag and a P30 member, thinks it will be a slam dunk. "The industry has needed this for years."