New York City Joins Others to Create Tower Crane Database
It was announced this summer that New York, Chicago and Philadelphia were coordinating creation of a first-ever database to track cranes and prevent accidents.

August 22, 2009 /24-7PressRelease/ -- New York City Joins Others to Create Tower Crane Database

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When two tower crane accidents left nine dead in Manhattan last year, it awakened the public, construction industry and government to the dangers of construction projects involving the giant machines. In response, it was announced this summer that New York, Chicago and Philadelphia were coordinating creation of a first-ever crane database to track mechanical and operational failures causing or contributing to crane accidents.

The database will initially include only those three cities, though other areas -- including Dallas, California, New Jersey, Connecticut and Ontario, Canada -- have also expressed interest in the program and may join it later.

The Commissioner of the New York City Buildings Department hailed the database as a major step toward a national tower crane tracking system.

The system will track the number of cranes active in a jurisdiction, the address of the project where the crane is in use, the crane's owner, plus the crane's make, model, year and serial number, as well as the date it was erected on the site, its maximum height and the date it is dismantled.

Officials say the system will be updated quarterly and will also include important details about manufacturer recalls, equipment failures, inspection records, operational failures and construction site accidents and other incidents involving cranes.

Critics say the system will lack crucial information on crane accidents; they claim that accidents usually are caused by operator error, improper use, poor operation training or inadequate preventative maintenance of the machines -- statistics this database will not track.

Instead, critics argue that the database should track maintenance schedules, licensing and the frequency of critical component replacement.

Whatever the outcome of the database projects, the number of serious injuries and deaths stemming from New York City crane accidents in the past year show that something must be done to protect construction workers and the public alike.

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