Text For Citation: 01 Item/Group: 008 Hazard: STRUCK BY

Section 5(a)(1) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970: The employer did not furnish employment and a place of employment which were free from recognized hazards that were causing or likely to cause death or serious physical harm to employees exposed to the hazards of being struck by falling crane booms: a) East Yard- On or about 09/03/03 the boom cable of the Big Betty floating crane snapped, collapsing the boom onto Dry Dock 6. A Union Maintenance employee working on the dry dock was struck and killed by the falling boom section. An analysis of the 1-1/8" 6 x 25 Filler Wire (FW), Independent Wire Rope Core (IWRC) boom cable which was installed and placed into service in 1997, indicated that it failed due to fatigue. The sheave to wire rope diameter ratio (D/d) did not meet the minimum requirement of 26. The actual ratio at the floating block was 17.8, which significantly reduced the service life of the boom cable. In addition, the extended sections of the (4) 1-1/2" x 40' 6 x 25 IWRC hog lines were calculated to have a factor of safety of 2.6. As such, they did not meet the design factor for boom pendants or standing ropes which shall not be less than 3.0. Feasible and acceptable methods among others to correct these hazards are to: 1) Ensure that all engineering calculations are correctly based on physical conditions of the crane to include existing parts/equipment such as but not limited to the floating block, sheaves and groove diameters, 2) Ensure that the sheave to wire rope ratio (D/d) meets minimum industry standards for moderate-duty cycles and higher (D/d) ratios such as those found in Table 9 of the Wire Rope Users Manual, for extensive-duty cycles, 3) Use properly sized hog lines which meet the required design factor of safety of not less than 3.0.