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Lost a 12 ton pick last Tuesday because a ground guy was on his phone and missed the hand signal.
Boss man had me set a steel beam on a school roof in Bakersfield and my spotter was scrolling Instagram instead of watching the load, almost dropped it onto a dumpster, has anyone else had to deal with distracted helpers on site?
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the_jana28d ago
Yeah man a buddy of mine had a crane spotter watching TikTok during a steel beam lift and almost dropped it on a parked excavator. Totally agree with @the_kevin about leaving phones in the truck, we started doing that on our crew after a near miss with a concrete panel last spring. Phones are handy but not worth losing a load or a limb over.
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simonp4728d ago
I get where you're coming from, but phones also saved us from a bad lift last year thanks to a quick text from the office.
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the_kevin28d ago
...and the thing nobody's talking about is how phones have totally killed hand signals as a backup system. Like yeah we all got radios now but when the signal drops or someone's on a noisy site, those basic hand signs are the failsafe. But if your guy's glued to a screen he's not gonna see you waving your arm off even if you're ten feet away. I'd start making guys leave their personal phones in the truck or the gangbox during lifts. It's not about being a hardass, it's about not turning a 12 ton pick into a headline.
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