This crane safety checklist looks at what you need to know when using a crane safely. Find out more about crane safety and crane inspections.

What Is Crane Safety?

As you can probably imagine, crane safety refers to the practice of using different types of cranes safely, whether static cranes or mobile cranes.

This involves creating a safe working environment for employees and anyone else visiting or using your site or operating your cranes.

One of the most important elements of crane safety and workplace safety is conducting regular crane inspections.

These regularly scheduled normal operating safety checks will help you identify potential hazards, risks and damage that could lead to serious accidents and even fatalities. 

What Are The Hazards In Crane Lifting?

What is a Crane Inspection?

Regular crane inspection ensures your cranes are all in good condition, preventing injuries and deaths for your crane operators, employees and even the general public. 

Not only do these frequent inspections keep costly repairs and serious workplace incidents from occurring, but they are a necessary part of remaining compliant with Lifting Operations and Lifting Regulations 1998, which is a legal requirement here in the UK.

Alongside conducting frequent inspections of your static or mobile crane equipment, these regulations also state you must only allow experienced and competent personnel to carry them out.

For example, properly experienced crane inspectors are expected to have the following training:

1. Understanding all of the design and safety codes for overhead and gantry cranes.
2. Safe operating standards for cranes and hoists.
3. Knowing how to follow and complete the appropriate documentation.
4. Understanding of all static or mobile crane and hoist terminology.

Common Crane Safety Hazards

Falling Loads

When working with overhead cranes, a natural hazard is falling materials or heavy loads. These incidents can not only lead to property damage or structural damage to the crane itself, but they can also lead to serious injuries and death.

Several reasons a load could fall from a crane include two-blocking, slips, mechanical failures, operator incompetency or visual impairment.

To prevent falling loads and heavy materials, your maintenance supervisor must:

1. Ensure all workers are wearing appropriate PPE (Personal Protective Equipment).
2. Perform regular crane maintenance checks and frequent inspections.
3. Ensure those operating the cranes or lifting equipment have sufficient training and experience to do so safely.
4. Post adequate warning signs around lifting areas.

Electrical Hazards

When using cranes, or any other work that takes place at height, there's always the risk of running into electrical power lines or other electrical apparatus. This is especially dangerous when working on cranes.

Since most cranes are constructed from metal, touching an energised power line means everyone touching or near the crane could be killed.

However, tragedies and electrical hazards like this are easily avoidable by following safety standards, creating thorough plans and putting appropriate preventative measures in place. 

Whenever you are working with cranes, you should ensure that your operators are fully aware of where all the potential electrical hazards are in the vicinity. Your supervisor should also be on hand to ensure they are working to appropriate safety standards at all times.

Your supervisor should have the authority to halt work as soon as a developing hazard is noticed, as well as putting warning signage, barriers, fences or other barriers around the work site to ensure everyone is kept safe.

Overloading

Overloading occurs when you ignore the safe weight limits for the type of crane you use. Forcing your crane to lift loads or materials above its operational capacity but the mechanics of it under additional stresses and lead to irreversible and expensive damage.

In the vast majority of cases, this is a human error, so ensure you and everyone else knows your crane's operational capacity, so your operators aren't simply guessing. It's also the employer's responsibility to ensure their operators understand load dynamics and safety protocols. 

Overhead Crane Safety Checklist

Before you begin using a crane in your construction project, you should thoroughly analyse the safety requirements and generate a safety checklist from your reports.

This crane inspection checklist should guide your operators, and the entire project, so that everyone is kept safe, ensuring inspections remain consistent.

Your overhead crane safety checklist should be strictly followed regarding overhead crane inspection frequency, alongside following the crane manufacturer's operating and maintenance instructions.

You can ensure that all your employees are kept safe by strictly following your inspection frequency schedule. Not only this but regular inspections and maintenance also mean less downtime, helping to improve your project's efficiency.  

What is involved in overhead crane safety procedures?

Your crane operators must conduct a safety inspection of all your lifting equipment on a daily basis before they begin their work. Using your overhead crane safety checklist, they should check the following:

1. The crane's power source.
2. Limit switches.
   
3. Emergency power shut down buttons.
   
4. Warning sirens and horns.
   
5. That the lifting cable sits properly in the drum grooves.
   
6. That the bottom lock isn't twisted.
   
7. Visually inspect all lifting gear, including steel cables, wire rope, chains and chain drive sprockets, for excessive wear or damage. 
   
8. Check slings for stretching, fraying, and rips and replace them as necessary. Check the hook's condition also. 
   
9. Check for loose bolts and bearings, corroded members, worn sheaves and other indicators of structural damage to ensure the crane is completely clear. 
   

They are also responsible for ensuring the area of operation in which your overhead cranes are working is safe.

This involves ensuring only authorised employees are present in the area and that there are no materials or pieces of machinery that could impede the safe operation of your overhead cranes. 

Who can undertake overhead crane safety & maintenance checks?

Again, the qualified person responsible for ensuring your day-to-day operational safety checks are generally carried out is the crane operator working on your site. To do this, they must use the crane safety inspection checklist generated at the beginning of their construction project.

Your crane inspection checklist will inform them of their main safety responsibilities, alongside the main potential hazards and risks identified at the start of the project. 

The overhead crane safety inspection checklist should be a physical document that the operators can walk around with, ticking off each item as they inspect it.

A physical copy also allows them to note any safety concerns or hazards they notice during their daily inspections. These thorough checks allow everyone on site to conduct their work safely and responsibly, but it all starts with the crane operator. 

Another part of guaranteeing this safe working environment is ensuring all work required prior to operations is carried out to make the site suitable for safety standards.

Any remedial safety work required should be noted, carried out and signed off by the appropriate site supervisor or fully-qualified engineer. This chain of responsibility regarding everyone's safety ensures there is always a way to trace where issues arose if there is an accident. 

One of the easiest ways to ensure your overhead cranes are safe is by conducting regular inspections and maintenance checks. If you hire your overhead cranes, the crane hire company you choose will most likely have competent engineers or fitters that will come to your site to carry out warranty work, besides the scheduled inspections and checks.

These qualified individuals are the best people the ensure your overhead crane is safe to use.