In the news is another giant crane collapse in Houston.
Seems like I just saw a story of another one of these falling not too long ago.
Is it just me or has there been many recent industrial accidents - or is it just that we have more news coverage of such things.

Alan

This makes either the 3rd or 4th one in the last year or so. I know there was one in NYC and another in Miami in the last several months. It's been suggested that crews are under ever-increasing pressure to get jobs done quickly. Since these big cranes have to be erected on-site, there's lots of opportunities for things to be done incorrectly.

We see pics of a heavy lift of a steamer here every few weeks; this story is a good reminder that cranes and heavy lifting are nothing to fool around with.

These crane failures are certainly reminders that "take the time to do the job safely" is more than a slogan. That said, as a student of urban and suburban tranport (as opposed to, say, Colorado narrow gauge), I see these tall construction cranes in action on big projects. They appear to be operating at the outer limits of material strength and design parameters. In railway preservation, we are more likely to be using equipment that was designed in the "olden days" with wider safety margins. Our hazards are more likely to be related to parts that have deteriorated and have used up most of that safety margin. I have worked of lifting projects and have been about to do something that (in my eagerness to do the job) would put me in an unsafe place; the "foreman" let me know that we don't do it that way--make sure everthing is blocked, or use a tool to get the part out of where it doesn't belong.
One of our operating exhibits is an electric railway crane that's about 100 years old and still works (but it's mostly retired--the forklift era is here); I tell visitors that it illustrates of of the truths of railroading: Everything is large, heavy, dirty, and in the wrong place.

When you read of a man made disaster like this, a refinery explosion, or the 1278 boiler explosion there is one important thing to remember. You are often hearing about the end result of a process that was years in the making. Nobody shows up to work wanting to burn the factory down but it happens. It starts by someone who lets a few little things go, then someone else follows the example, and the near misses start to happen (often unknown to anyone). Sometimes people catch things and sometimes they just get lucky but sooner or later the luck runs out and it's all over CNN. Just like the incident with the 1278 this one with the crane will probably be found to not be just one big mistake at one moment but a series of failures that have happened over time and one day the luck just ran out.

The person at the top needs to decide that everything will be done the right way, every time, without exception. Everyone else needs to be on board and those who are not need to leave. Often someone at the top lets things slide to make things go faster or cheaper and the whole system breaks down. This is important and applies to anyone in any line of work.

Okay, I'm done my sermon.