REGULATIONS Feds To Publish Crane Rule Next Month 09/19/2008
As crane experts gathered in Toronto Sept. 18 to discuss issues plaguing crane workers, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration sent out advance-review drafts of a forthcoming rule to members of its Cranes and Derricks Negotiated Rulemaking Committee (C-DAC), which in 2004 hammered out an update to OSHA's decades-old crane regulation.
The much-anticipated federal rule, which is slated to go out for public comments on Oct. 3, could save at least 53 lives and prevent 115 injuries a year, says OSHA. It would supplant a rule promulgated in 1971, which has seen few revisions despite rapid changes in crane work.