An Accident in Florida Shows a Break in the Decision Chain
Early on July 6, 2005, a union operating engineer went to work at a Jacksonville Beach, Fla., condominium project, not far from the ocean’s edge. He set up a Manitowoc 222 crawler crane with a 105-ft-long main boom and 140 ft of luffing jib and prepared for the day’s first lift.
Another operator, who had been on the crane the day before but was laid up that morning with an injury sustained at home, had left a penny wedged in the limit-bypass switch for maximum boom lift. The new operator didn’t touch it.