Condolences for crane family loved ones

Here is a very moving article with quotations from family members and colleagues for two of the four men who were lost in the gigantic crane accident in Texas.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5897423.html#none

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There is nothing I can say that will take away the terrible sting and pain of this loss. These were men in the prime of their lives, and even the oldest one is more than a decade younger than I. So I know how great life is when you have a job you love, doing real work for a country who needs it (not just fiddling with videos), and love is still young and sweet with your families, children, even when there are problems. I know exactly how devastated the spouses, children, parents and other relatives must feel.

It is too soon, but perfectly understandable, about the speculation about what could possibly have happened. Construction work is dangerous, whether it is on one of the world's largest machines, or like the poor three guys here in Mississippi who were digging a sewer pipe ditch and the earth wall collapsed, killing them. Some accidents can never be prevented because they are just flat out dangerous circumstances (like the brave utility guys who go out in terrible conditions to repair storm damage, sometimes even as the conditions are still bad). These are the salts of the earth. I grew up among that generation where most men had that type of job, and I have always supported them, and feel terrible when there is a loss. I live near a gravel pit here and I always slow down to get a glimpse of the guys and their gadgets. I was thrilled when I got a hard hat to wear in the 1980's even as a desk girl, because I once in a while looked in on a building under construction. The country would fall apart even worse than it is if it wasn't for guys like this, and that's a fact.

So what can we do? Nothing mends a broken heart when one's loved one, child or parent is gone. The only thing one can do is to recognize that time makes it bearable, one hour at a time, one day at a time. People in the article mentioned how important reconciliation is while people are still alive; and I hope many who read this take it to heart. This is a comfort to the loved ones who must carry on, to know that their loved ones were "alright" with the important people in their lives. It is also a reminder to make sure that everyone is "alight with God," all the time, throughout your life. I'm not saying this in a dark way, about their dispositions with God, but I'm pointing out it is a great rock and comfort to those who are remaining after one dies to know that the loved one was "alright" with the Lord. This is another reason that faith is a family thing. A father teaches his children about God, and at the same time, he demonstrates to his family that he is in a relationship with God and will be "alright" if anything happens to him. This is a great source of solace, in the most inconsolable of all situations, and I'm saddened that many don't remember this. But it is something that the grandparents and those who fought in the big wars all kept in mind.

I don't know what else to say except I know exactly the devastating pain of loss that the loved ones are experiencing, and so does God. Cherish your memories and remember that time has now changed, where time becomes your friend, rendering the unbearable gradually bearable again.

I hope that executives and others in the profession now heed what I am going to say. The rush to meet schedules and budgets is a national background static that keeps people from seeing more costly but safer ways to do things. I'm not saying anything was done wrong or irresponsibly; not at all. I'm saying that I had hoped in this stage of prosperity of the nation that rather than relying only on ass covering routines such as inspections that buddy and team systems of checks and balances would have permeated all businesses, large and small. Everyone always calls for more inspections and laws when something like this happens. Yet they do not use their creative thinking caps to think of how to break down and change procedures in building and other projects so that there are increments of review and nothing becomes "rote."

I'm no expert on heavy equipment but here's an imaginary example. Suppose when you set up some sort of rig and adjust it, there are two incremental stages of modification or addition. I think that these should be reviewed to see if extra slower stages could be added, so that a two step process could be divided so that there is step, check, step, check, step, check, step, check, plus an extra team member who is the "buddy" of the head guy (I guess in this case the crane operator is the head guy). It is like the Army buddy system. With radio contact the buddy could know all the steps the head guy is going to make, and they have a verbal check off and the buddy can also scan other related activities. I've thought this during a number of the accidents I have seen on the workplace.

Again, I'm not saying it was necessarily a procedure error. My advice mitigates damage from broken parts too. For example, if more gradual steps and checks are taken, if something is going to break, maybe it would do so at an early stage of exposure, where there is less weight, height, torque, people around, or whatever... know what I mean? For example, I thought it when the ditch digging guys were killed that there should have been a team member who worked above ground to mitigate risk and be the buddy of the head guy of the team. Their problem was rain saturated ground that suddenly collapsed on them while deep in the trench. I wondered if there was a guy who was a buddy who stood by with procedures and mitigating materials in advance of wet ground collapse situations. I mean, clearly not, and I'm not saying that was wrong. But in my "ideal workplace world," I think more buddy system with a safety orientation is needed, where the buddy's job is to think about the things that could go wrong and position tasks and materials in a way that would mitigate damage at unrecoverable stages of work, if you know what I mean.

So I would really suggest that while the accident cause must be found, that everyone who has this kind of responsibility think about it. You could do it and have an extra benefit if the buddy is a kind of apprentice in the trade; he or she will be learning but also already knowledgeable and on the payroll. Maybe you add people, maybe you add overtime. But you can't buy your way back out of a loss of life, even if the accident itself was unforeseeable, it is hard to live with a loss of life on the job when a buddy system and incremental steps could have "caught" whatever the situation was at least one step before "dire." By the way, I think this is needed in the financial and not-for-profit world too, a good decision and honesty buddy system, but that's a whole other topic not pertinent to the sad crane accident.

I truly hope these thoughts help and again, my condolences to family, friends, colleagues and all who are grieved by this loss, and others that have happened in the past.