Tower cranes are used extensively for lifting heavy materials in construction sites. In this country, their use has grown rapidly over the past five years, largely replacing the mobile crane.
Tower cranes are located in construction sites that are almost invariably situated in confined spaces and in dense habitation. There are more than 200 tower cranes available for use in Malta. While serious accidents have not (yet) occurred, tower cranes are a potential hazard not only to workers on the construction site they serve but also to passing pedestrians and adjacent buildings.
A seminar was held a few days ago by the Occupational Health and Safety Authority to raise awareness about legal notices dealing with tower cranes’ safety. Kevin Gauci, the OHSA’s principal officer, told the gathering that although contractors were not bound by law to submit copies of certificates of operations before tower cranes could be used on site, he “would appreciate it if they still did so” because the introduction of such a practice would enable the regulator to keep track of what was going on in terms of tower crane use.
Although deaths and injuries resulting from tower crane accidents have apparently been “minimal”, thank God, Mr Gauci rightly noted that such heavy machinery could damage third party property in the surrounding area.
When accidents occurred they usually did so as a result of poor maintenance of the equipment, he noted. Furthermore, his encounters with crane owners and building contractors had led him to conclude that there was a need for more awareness-raising about the certification and maintenance of such machinery.
There is a second factor that did not directly arise at the seminar but which affects any discussion on health and safety in Malta. This is that undue risks by construction workers are prevalent.
The number of non-fatal accidents at work in the first half of 2012 rose by about five per cent compared with the year before. A high proportion of these were in the construction industry.
There appears to be a culture of risk-taking and a lack of adherence to regulations that leads to injury and even death.
While the OHSA offers advice about good practice - as it was seeking to do at the seminar - and ensures conformity with established practice, it is evidently a small organisation whose resources are inevitably stretched.
It seems extraordinary, therefore, that in dealing with tower cranes, which, as already noted, is machinery that could be potentially so hazardous, the OHSA is not informed in advance of where they are located so that its inspectors will be in a position to carry out the necessary inspections both before and also when construction work is in progress.
As the Minister for Health stressed at the seminar, the cranes should be rigorously tested because they could cause lethal accidents. The OHSA, he noted, should not simply be a watchdog but also raise awareness to reduce the risk of accidents on construction sites.
The logic of the minister’s statement, however, is that it would be sensible for the 1986 legal notice on this issue to be amended to make it mandatory for crane operators and building contractors to inform the OHSA in advance of where such equipment is to be located so that the necessary health and safety checks can be conducted. These should focus not only on the maintenance and physical state of the machinery but also on the competence, training and expertise of the crane operators on site.
Safety is everyone’s responsibility.