I got into 2 accidents on my first 2 weeks when I first started operating with 0 experience.
Please excuse my grammar by the way
* A new start
When I first earned my NCCCO license after I got done with the school, I applied to a bunch of companies hoping to find a seat. 3 days later, a company that is known to construct highways accepted my application and I get an interview. The interview arrives and I meet with the site supervisor, we went over my qualifications, previous job experience, what cranes I got in my license, etc. I clearly mention to him that I have 0 experience on running a crane besides learning the basics at school. He tells me that it’s ok that I can learn along the way and tells me that I can start in 2 days.
* The First Day
My first day started and I arrive at the jobsite (the jobsite is a highway construction by the way).
I met with the supervisor and he gives me a ride to where the crane i was gonna operate is at. We arrive at the crane and it was a crawler crane placed to where we had to lift a tall wall (exactly like slide #1) into the side of the highway. He hands me over the keys and tells me to just do exactly what the crew wants me to lift… I get on the crane and look around and ask him to teach me how to set up the LMI, turn on the function control, and how to also move the tracks, he gives me a quick run down and leaves after getting the hang of it, before he left, he strictly mention to only use the ball because it’s faster… Keep In mind, the company has no lift director and the supervisor is not an operator. They had no operator in charge btw.
So when I get used to the control, one of the crew member gets next to the load and signal me to bring the ball over. The load was a small wall ( about 2 human above each other size). I bring the ball over, he rigs it up and signals me to move it over above the massive wall (slide number 1) where the crew was at. I know it’s stupid but I thought I can only swing on when someone signal me to swing so I was frozen in place until I saw a signal. One of the crew above the tall wall signaled me to swing right, so I swung right, the load was at the height of the above wall by the way, so as I swung he just kept pointing right, I then accidentally hit and accidentally destroy the fence that prevents them from falling over (slide #2) and almost ram it into another worker nearby full speed. We all stopped and after a few minutes of discussing what happened, they understood and everything went smoothly with great caution. It was dumb I know, but I never knew about operating at your own. I literally thought to only operate only when signaled…
*The second accident
It was my second week and I got moved into a new crew, we were there to put on highway columns (slide number #3) and I was put into an RT crane. I tell the supervisor how do I level it, set up the lmi on that one and how to turn on functions control. He gives me a quick run down and goes on his way once he leaves. 2 days later and I am stripping the column frames after the concrete dries. There was a turnbuckle (that long poll that is leaning on the Column on slide #3) that was connected across 2 column horizontally above the 2 and was told to move the ball above it to move it. The foreman rigs me up and tells me to hoist but unbeknown to him, while I was hoisting up, the end of the turnbuckle was still screwed, he was still signaling me to keep hoisting so I did, and once there was enough pressure, the turnbuckle snapped up like rocket and got unhooked and fell next to a worker to the ground, the turnbuckle tip fell to the ground and then fell over to the worker and hit his head, luckily he was wearing a helmet. But it still knocked him to the ground.
Everyone was accusing each other instead of me because they were saying that I warned you it wasn’t lose yet and no you told me this and that…. They understood luckily that i still didn’t know how the job worked on the column so they weren’t pointing fingers at me, still the safety guy came, the supervisor came, even the freaking owner of the company came to investigate. The safety scolded me to be more careful and that to please be more cautious of whats bolted and whats not bolted. I honestly thought was going to be let go and was already thinking about my life…. Luckily everything went as normal an hour later. And yes the worker was fine by the way.
I already got a few years of experience, I had since left the company and went into crane rentals, I learned a lot more in crane rentals on how the crane works, crane placement etc, I was thankful that I got the seat, at the same time im thankful that nothing bad came out from the accident or worse…
Anyways i would like to order the Bloody Mary drink, what about you man? What beer you want me to get you? On me by the way