The Most Common Overhead Crane Hazards and How to Prevent Them

Crane Service in Baltimore County, MD

The best thing you can do for the trees on your property is to maintain them throughout the year, during every season. But what happens if you can’t safely reach tall trees to prune or trim them? This is when you should call an experienced crane service! To ensure the job goes off without a hitch, a good crane service in Baltimore County, MD will send only a trained and knowledgeable team member along with the crane.

 

Cranes for tree maintenance

Cranes can be used for more than just moving materials around construction sites or lifting a repairman up to fix aboveground power lines. You may not know it, but many licensed tree specialists utilize certain types of cranes on a regular basis for tree maintenance and tree care services, including pruning, trimming and removal.

Why use a crane for tree jobs? For starters, some trees are too tall to perform maintenance on from the ground. In these cases, a crane operated by a professional is brought in. The great thing about cranes is that they are available in a variety of sizes and shapes, meaning there’s likely a crane that can maneuver around your specific worksite. When a properly trained operator is behind the controls, cranes are a safe and efficient way to deal with important tree maintenance.

Now, let’s ask a crane service in Baltimore County, MD about the most common overhead crane hazards and how to prevent them from happening.

 

Electrical dangers

Nearly half of all job site-related overhead crane accidents are due to machinery making contact with a power source. Many of these incidents occur when cranes are moving materials or tree debris underneath or near power lines too closely and the boom or hoist line comes into contact with the power lines. Electrical hazards can be avoided by taking some safety precautions—have the electricity to power lines near workers turned off, and make sure that non-conductive tools, ladders and other equipment are being used at the tree care site.

 

Overloading or misusing the crane

Crane accidents can also happen because a crane’s operational capacity is exceeded in some way, including swinging or suddenly dropping a crane load, faulty machine components, side loading a boom or raising a load that’s too heavy. A lot of these problems are the result of human error, so make sure your crane operator is fully trained in all aspects of proper crane loading.

 

Falling materials and debris

Crane hoists need regular maintenance to lower the risk of materials or tree parts falling from the machine. Load testing maintenance is important because it makes certain the crane operator does not lift more weight than the hoist can handle. To prevent mechanical failure, perform crane inspections daily.

Now that you have a better idea of the potential risks associated with overhead cranes, you may want to leave the more difficult tree trimming and pruning jobs to the professionals. If you are searching for the most reliable and experienced crane service in Baltimore County, MD, call Stabler Tree & Crane Services. Contact us today to schedule an appointment!

Posted in Crane Service