There seems to be accidents involving outrigger crushing workers foot. I am wondering why manufacturers don't have any sensors detecting human around outrigger and kill the deploying operation if human is detected near outrigger. Anyone has any Idea?
If someone is putting pads down is the only time someone should be around the outrigger and they need to pay 100% attention. Worked at a golf course where a guy had his steel toed boot get crushed and had to have 3 toes amputated. He was crawling on an 88" tree spade trying to hold branches out of the way while a spruce tree was being planted. My guess is the operator was on the other side and couldn't see him. Sad he lost 3 toes but it was 95% his own fault. I blame the operator for not stressing strong enough for everyone to stay back while he is planting the tree.
This happened to my buddy . His first day on the job with an electrical contractor on a digger derrick truck . He was reaching in the tool box while the operator was setting the riggers . His foot was in the wrong place wrong time . Luckily the op was quick on the controls when my buddy " yelped " . Got buy with a broken foot . One thing we do is yell " Riggers Down " when setting up .
I don't know if there's a fairly simple practical solution. I know when I set the trailer down to unload a rig I always do a head count and yell for guys to watch their toes. When I unload at a busy site all of our guys swarm the trailer to unchain the rig. I'd sure have to squash some toes. In high school I worked for a good size horse boarding and training facility. Vet was there and asked me to help him hold one of the horses he had to work on, float his teeth or something I don't recall. It was a rather large Belgian that had hooves as big as a 5 gallon bucket lid it seemed. That sucker stepped on my boot and crimped the steel toe over my toes! I yelled and danced around until I could tell them what my malfunction was. He dug some tools out and cut the leather away and with some work peeled the steel back off my toes. Man oh man did that feel good!
it would be almost impossible for that technology, if you were close to any object like a tree, big rock or anything the outrigger would sense it and not go down, a better idea would be a camera mounted on each out rigger so operator could see whats going on...and maybe a warning alarm on each out rigger so anyone around it would know its going down...
Heavy equipment is inherently dangerous. Getting a foot crushed is a symptom of a poorly run operation, lack of training or lack of intellect. Putting another safety sensor on something as simple as a loader backhoe outrigger is only going to hasten the day that operators will no longer be needed.
No good reason to have a foot under the pad at all if your foots under the tire when hes backing up it will get crushed also I havent seen an outrigger that moves super fast or a crane hire crew that was in any kind of hurry to make foolish mistakes like that
I was thinking the same sort of thing. Never saw a crane outrigger jack that moved fast enough to catch someone that was half awake. But there is the key point,"half awake"! I swear there are some people around that could crush their fingers in a bench vise when they are the only person in the shop!
My crane's outrigger controls are split side/side so you can only operate what you can see.
I'm wondering why manufacturers don't put a sensor in hammers so you can't hit your thumb with it. I'm wondering why they can't quiet down the bubble wrap that makes that loud pop when you stomp on it, that sound scares me. I'm wondering why they can't get poo to not smell so bad. I'm wondering why everyone can't just agree on everything and we can have world peace. I'm wondering why we can't just tell china that nothing will be imported from their country to ours, until China changes the leadership in North Korea. I'm wondering why we can't put every person on the planet in a inflatable bubble so they can't hurt themselves or other people. But no- I'm not really that concerned about outrigger crushing incidents, sorry.....stay away from my crane.
Just to be more serious about this stupid question. If you have a sensor that can automatically retract your outrigger, what happens when your set up and the sensor reads a obstruction or misreads, and retracts while your working? That's right your dumping the crane on its side. Lets hear it for safety. This is looking for a solution to a problem that doesn't exist. People shouldn't be designing safety equipment that's more dangerous than the problem.
Along the lines of replace airbags with spears will vastly improve safety for everyone.
Then there was the suggestion I made to my boss to help determine who was hitting and bending the Roll Cage on the skid-steers in the quarry. I said simple way to fix that is let me remove them for a week and then we would find out fast. Just need to make sure all operators wear name tags to make identification easy!
My National has a control box on a 6' cord, so I can directly eyeball the pads going down. I like that a lot better then my old Manitex 22101S with its center mounted fix controls. Several of the crews I work with a lot, maybe feeling sorry for the old man, or just trying to hurry things up, start putting on my pads by the time I'm getting out the truck cab, and then throwing out my cribbing. It bugs me a little, but I've decided I have had enough practice doing these chores and if they want to they can have at it. One thing about that tethered control box, I was cautioned by the guy I bought the rig from, to NEVER forget to properly stow it in it's rear compartment, and then secure the compartment door. Or... you may pull up to your job and find it's been dragging down the road and all you have left is frazzeled wires. So far I have remembered.
This is pretty close to how it went down . Front riggers are in pretty close to the bed , 3 or 4 man crew & buddy Ron was looking for something in the front tool box . Digger Derick's are pretty fast on the outriggers . Was a bad first day on the job but I can see how it could happen . Don't worry ...........It wont happen again ...... When ya yell " Riggers Down ! " Ron gets the hell out of the way .
Similar saying about Football ..... If ya want to reduce injuries get rid of the helmets & padding .
If your planting taters in that picture your rows aren't very straight
LOL ... We was gettin ready to plant a building . Had one injury on that job ....The Old Man raised up during the lift & hit one of the I beams with his head . Luckily we were able to save the I beam . Holy **** Dad ..... Settle down man ! LOL
I heard if ya plant em too deep they won't grow
Back to the outrigger deal ..... I need to install a " spot mirror " for the right rear out rigger . Totally blind on that one . Not that I'm worried about planting it on some ones foot but many times we work in close quarters up next to a building . Be nice to be able to see the area . Probably cost me $ 20.00 to install . Another problem I run in to is contractors laying tools on the outrigger beams . I get it , its a handy spot to lay a wrench down ...... I do it to ..... Just be Damn sure the beams are clear before stowing them away .
Not quite the same thing, but I don't know how many times I've had to warn guys not to stand near the outriggers on a backhoe while it's digging. It wouldn't take much to move the machine far enough to plop one down on someone's foot.
Ya I'd hate to be standing close to mine when I'm busting frost.
If we had stayed with the hand pull out, hand crank down outriggers, things like this would not happen. Modern equipment is to blame for all the world failures.
Maybe but seems like some people could still figure out how to hurt themselves. "Gee I was just screwing the outrigger down and was texting my buddy about the girl I saw at the bar last night and the next thing I knew....."
If people would just think about what they are doing when doing it they'd be fine... so when you're screwing a jack down think about the screwing not about the girl......
With all of our truck mounted, truck loader, and all terrain cranes, I put all of the legs down one at a time. Sometimes the rams don't settle properly in the floats, especially on the all Terrains, so I like to eyeball them as they go down. The roughies are obviously all done from the cab, so a bit more risk for spectators, but nobody has been stupid enough to get under one yet
They're thinking about what they'd rather be.....
I did install a spot mirror for my right rear outrigger also, for this reason. My own suggestion is to install an idiot detector on every job site and ring a loud alarm when an idiot walks into a job site.
The side benefit of the idiot detector would be that everyone would be warned whenever the boss showed up.
Some of us would find work to be an awfully lonely place...
Biggest reason most bosses of small businesses could be called idiots is because they work 14 hour days when there employees go home at 5 or 6. Do book work, repairs and client calls most weekends so that thier employees have a job to go to. Don't get me wrong I have great employees but most weeks I'd be glad to have thier pay check and let them work 7 days a week in my place.
So now we have to program the machine to categorize what kind of idiots show up on site?
Color coded. Idiots that should know better. Idiots that just don't know any better. Idiots that should know better, but they're the boss so you can't tell them that. Idiots that don't know any better, but they're the boss, but you don't care anymore so are going to tell them so on the way to your next job. Would that cover it? That's only 4 colors. I've known guys that could set off the rainbow, shoot, I've been the guy.....
your message described my situation precisely!
I suspect a lot of people on this sight.