12 Essential Safety Tips for Crane Operators

Crane safety is paramount for crane managers and operators. To do your job correctly, you must know and understand the dangers that potentially await you whenever you climb into a crane. 

Before you’re certified to operate a specific crane, you’ll undergo the necessary crane safety training, but knowing the crane hazards and control measures is only part of the job. Practical understanding and constantly refreshing your knowledge of the OSHA crane regulations help to enforce effective safety protocols.

Efficient planning and communication between you and your manager on the ground can prevent mechanical failures, overloading and unnecessary contact between your crane and nearby power lines. If you plan, communicate well and abide by the following essential safety tips, your risk of experiencing an unnecessary incident will be minimal.

1. Choose the Best Crane for the Job

You’ll know that fixed and mobile cranes exist, each serving different purposes. Fixed cranes mainly operate in advanced construction scenarios or within industrial plants requiring their constant use. Selecting the correct mobile crane for a job might be more complex, and an awareness of your abilities and these differences is crucial.

With a spectrum of mobile crane types on the market, your expert knowledge of potential crane hazards and control measures can be the difference between completing a project safely and filling in accident and incident reports, or worse, later. Discuss the planning with your manager beforehand and agree on the most suitable crane and your ability to operate it.

2. Ensure You’re Certified to Operate the Crane

To abide by OSHA crane regulations, only trained and certified operators may work on a project. Your manager will likely know your certification status, but you’ll be aware of your qualifications and certification more than anybody else. Don’t climb into a crane without being certified to operate it.

3. Read the Operator Manual

You might be qualified and certified to operate a specific type of crane, but that only means you can do it, not that you’re familiar with every model from different manufacturers. Feature differences to be aware of include:  

• Operating controls
• Failsafe devices 
• Capacities
• Counterweight and stabilizers
• Other safety settings

Climbing into a new crane model before familiarizing yourself with these could place you and your project at risk. Certification is vital, but it isn’t everything.

4. Carry Out Daily Pre-Operation Inspections

A crane is a vehicle and a large one at that. Like any vehicle, cranes require constant and thorough checking to ensure safety. You’ll go far in eliminating mechanical failure or possible accidents by identifying damage, undue wear or malfunctioning controls before beginning your duties. If you recognize any safety risks, immediately make your manager aware.

5. Always Wear the Prescribed Crane Safety Equipment

Everybody directly or indirectly involved in crane operation should conform to the safety regulations outlined by OSHA. These regulations stipulate that everyone on-site, including you, wears Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). You’re required to wear:

• Safety boots
• Hard Hat
• Protective gloves

Falling debris could harm you inside the crane as suddenly as somebody on the ground, so dress appropriately before starting your day.  

6. Check All Safety and Warning Signs

Positioning signage might not be your job, but you’ll have to answer questions if the crane’s operation injures anyone during a project. These signs are vital for minimizing on-site risks to all personnel, so their constant visibility is paramount.

7. Plan the Crane’s Route and Clear Its Path

You already know to keep a wide berth from power lines, but the regulations bear mention anyway. You cannot operate a crane within 10 feet of any power lines, so communicate with your manager and plan your route accordingly. Power cables are only one potential hazard when operating a crane, though. 

Move any objects or debris well away from your crane’s route, and always have somebody guide you and warn other personnel to stay clear.  

8. Stabilize the Crane Effectively

Mobile cranes generally use outriggers to stabilize them during a project. You must consult the manufacturer’s outrigger guidelines and know how far to extend them and how best to place them. Use crane pads underneath the outriggers to ensure against tipping or other accidents.

9. Hitch Correctly and Check Sling Angles

Consider what you’re lifting while rigging your loads, and attach your slings to distribute their weight evenly. Basket and choker hitching are standards, but you must know all possible hitching configurations and incorporate properly rated slings at the correct angles to ensure a stable lift.

10. Know Your Loads

Although most cranes now incorporate capacity limiters, you should continuously refresh yourself on reading load charts. You should, at least, know the following without relying on the crane’s readings:

• Load radius
• Boom rotation
• Capacity differential between loading on tires and using outriggers

11.  Avoid Baskets Wherever Possible

If you can, only incorporate a basket carrying another employee if no other method is available. Your fellow worker’s risk lies in your ability and skill level alone. You might be an experienced operator with no other options. In this case, you’ll know to check the basket’s capacity, that it is securely attached and that there’s proper fall protection on the ground. If you’re a new operator, seek professional and experienced advice before considering the request. 

12. Never Leave the Crane Under Load

Leaving your crane unattended under load is dangerous, especially for extended periods. If your day ends, drop the load and start again in the morning. Strong winds could cause load swaying or even tip the crane, or, with modern hydraulically operated machines, even a small leak could cause a pressure loss. The boom could then drop and release the suspended load.

Don’t Leave Crane Safety to Chance

As a crane operator, you are responsible for your load and yourself. Taking chances with crane safety could see you in deep water, so always adhere to this crane safety checklist to keep yourself and everybody else on the project safe.