Cranes largely unregulated in Washington

In a region where construction cranes have been sprouting like giant metal mushrooms, the deadly collapse of a 210-foot crane in Bellevue last week has many residents looking up with trepidation.

Some 60 tower cranes were scheduled for projects in Seattle this year, more than triple the average number.

But as Thursday's accident has revealed, the giant machines and the people who operate them are largely unregulated in Washington.

Inspections are generally left up to contractors themselves. And while beauticians in Washington must be licensed, operators who wield 300-ton cranes require no certification.

"What's wrong with this picture?" asked Bob Hornaeur, of the National Commission for the Certification of Crane Operators.

When it comes to inspection, the industry is largely self-regulated, said Charles Lemon of the state Department of Labor and Industries.

Under a set of nonregulatory "consensus standards," cranes are supposed to undergo so-called "frequent" inspections — done daily or weekly — and "frequent" checks done monthly or yearly. But it is up to the firms that operate cranes to determine who does the checks. Some firms hire independent, accredited consultants, but others rely on their own employees, including crane operators themselves.

In Washington, many crane operators graduate from a union-funded training school near Spokane, but there is no requirement that they do so, Lemon said. And although crane operators are supposed to pass a standardized national test, it's the companies that give the test to prospective hires and are ultimately the judge of qualifications, he said.

Perhaps as a result, citations for unqualified crane operators are among the most frequent type issued by L&I.

As the number of cranes in Washington has proliferated, L&I has been sending more of its inspectors to crane training classes, Lemon said.

The state inspects cranes only if it has reason to believe there is a problem. That could be based on a complaint or on an inspector's driving by and seeing something that doesn't look right. The department also keeps a "target list" of companies. If a company has a lot of claims filed with the department, or a high rate of incidents, then the inspector can go to the site and check things out, Lemon said.

But, "we rely on the employer to make sure he's operating safely," Lemon said.

He added that the companies are motivated to keep their operations working properly. For one thing, the equipment is expensive.

Bill Lewis, of Lease Crutcher Lewis, said he has hired outside consultants to review the accident to figure out how the crane inspection in Bellevue was done.

Saturday, as the fallen crane was being disentangled from surrounding buildings, state inspectors interviewed the 34-year-old Tacoma man who was at the controls when the accident occurred. While there is no reason to suspect operator error, Lemon said investigators wanted to know the man's qualifications and whether he was responsible for daily inspections of the crane.

The operator has worked for Ness Crane Services for less than a year, said Ken Day, the company's vice president of marketing. The company, which was contracted to operate the crane at the Bellevue construction site, encourages but does not require its operators to earn certification.

Day said he doesn't know whether the Bellevue operator was certified. As part of its standard procedures, the company gave the operator a drug test after the accident. The operator and his family declined comment.

Nationwide, the issue of crane-operator qualifications has been getting more attention, particularly as the number of crane accidents has climbed in recent years, said retired crane operator Doyle Peeks. From his home in Florida, Peeks has been tracking industry accidents and posting statistics on his Web site for the past seven years (http://craneaccidents.com). So far this year, he has logged nearly 280 accidents and 96 deaths worldwide, and expects the total for 2006 will reach 300 accidents.

"It exceeds any year yet since I've been reporting them," he said.

He attributes many of the problems to building booms, such as the one playing out across the Seattle region, that have led to a shortage of qualified workers. In many places, he says, there's only one qualification to operate a crane. "Be alive," he said. "That's all you need."

"I'm 72 and I've got Parkinson's disease, and I've got a guy who wants me to come to work for him," Peeks said.

Lewis, of Lease Crutcher Lewis, said the current construction boom is the biggest he has seen in his 25 years in the business.

Ness has 40 cranes operating in the Seattle area, and finding operators has been challenging, Day said. "We've kept our positions filled, but [operators] are not exactly growing on trees."

Fourteen states and six cities require certification for crane operators, Hornaeur said. His organization is a nonprofit that administers a nationwide certification program. But Hornaeur estimates only a small fraction of all operators actually earn the certification, which requires a written test as well as a demonstration of hands-on expertise.

In some places around the country, major accidents have spurred state legislatures to adopt requirements for crane operators, he said. California is one of the latest states to take up the issue, with rules that went into effect last year.

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration is considering a proposal to require nationwide certification and mandatory drug testing for all crane operators. But it will be at least three years before any new rules go into effect, Hornaeur estimated.

In the absence of state or federal requirements, many construction companies have taken the incentive to require their employees be certified.

"The savvy companies do it," Hornaeur said.

Seattle Times reporters Jennifer Sullivan and Cheryl Phillips contributed to this report

Sandi Douughton:206-464-2491 or sdoughton@seattletimes.com

Jonathan Martin: 206-464-2605 or jmartin@seattletimes.com