A broken anti-two block… on the ground while its crane is still in operation. (Photo: Jan Thomas)

I was going through my picture catalog, looking for inspirations for this blog when I came across this photo.  Here is the story…  a couple of summers back I seemed to follow one particular crane and operator around the region from job-to-job.  This crane was almost always without its required “anti-two block” – necessary when lifting personnel platforms and a good idea for all other types of lifts.

I kept asking that this be fixed.  It kept getting fixed.  And the next time I came across the operator he showed me his most recent two-block, on the ground after another failure to keep it up.  As you will notice, this wasn’t a brand new mechanism.  And, as you might suppose, there were some other issues here beyond a mere mechanical failure.  Questions were asked; people were spoken to and agreements put in place.  I’ve seen the crane recently and it proudly sported its anti-two block.

But, what this photo called to my mind was the question – what has happened to OSHA’s proposed  Cranes and Derricks standard for construction?   So far it’s been two-blocked and is lying on the ground.

NOTE ADDED – sortly after this was posted OSHA published the final standard – see OSHA crane page at http://www.osha.gov/cranes-derricks/index.html - the new standard becomes effective November 9, 2010.