When it comes to accidents involving heavy equipment, few make the neck hairs of investigators stand on edge quite like crane and rigging incidents.
It was just such an event that recently resulted in a fatality. As the accident unfolded, part of the equipment’s heavy frame broke free and crashed into the cab, killing the operator.
When investigators showed up, they found that the crane had toppled forward and was resting with its treads pointing skyward.
“We got out to the site within 24 hours of first notice of this accident, knowing that there was a catastrophic accident involving a crane that turned over lifting a load from the building,” said Arthur Kirkner, vice president of claims, NBIS, a managing general agent offering coverage in all 50 states in the heavy construction and transportation arena.
“From our early investigation, we found that the lift plans may not have been followed and the supposedly “known weight” of the object to be lifted was in fact unknown, it was not the crane operator’s fault and that there were many other deficient variables discovered,” said Kirkner.
He and William Smith, executive vice president, risk management at NBIS, use the crane example as a case study to educate NBIS agents on risk management principles.
Smith and Kirkner are hosting a free webinar for agents working with construction clients titled “Preventing and handling claims in the construction market,” the webinar will be presented June 22 at 2 pm Eastern Time. Register
here.
Kirkner said new standards are bringing greater visibility into crane operations – such as ANSI B30, a standard that NBIS’s Smith helped develop.
“Generally, in the past if something happened with a crane, the crane operator was at fault, but the B30 standard really helped to define the different responsibilities and distinguish between the crane operator, the rigger, and the lift director, as well as site supervision,” said Kirkner, who credits the updated standard with having saved NBIS $800,000 over the past 6 to 12 months.
“We consider ourselves a risk management company that supplies a lot of information to the industry that we insure,” said Smith, a former crane operator who’s credited with developing an industry-acclaimed Risk Management Support System (RMSS) that they say has enabled NBIS to set itself apart from other insurers inside the heavy construction sector.
