Crane Safety Factors

[Chris Achilles]

There has been another crane failure in Liverpool recently which caused a block of flats to be evacuated and may lead to possible demolition. Luckily there were no fatalities on this occasion but there have been plenty in the past. There does not seem to be a month go by when a crane incident does not make the headlines in some way. Surely for there to be this many incidents repeating then something fundermental must be wrong. Having spoken to various "experts" I'm led to belive that the saftey factors for cranes are extremly low around the 5% mark as opposed to 20% to 60% for structures. Does anyone know the actual safety factor figures as 5% seems extremely low and foolish in my opinion?

Has anyone got any ideas on reducing incidents apart from increasing the safety factors?

Has anyone got any crane tails they would like to share?

Does anyone know what amount of incidents is acceptable? (Zero in a perfect world).