Operator of S.F. Crane Had Tried Suicide : Inquiry: Officials ask why an unstable man was allowed to operate heavy equipment. Fatal incident prompts call for more building-industry regulation.

The operator of the crane that killed five people when it plunged 19 stories to the ground Tuesday had a drinking problem and a history of suicide attempts, prompting public officials to question why such an unstable person was allowed to run the dangerous piece of equipment.

Pierce County, Wash., Deputy Sheriff Curt Benson said in an interview that 45-year-old Lonnie Boggess, who died in the crane collapse, was a deeply troubled man who barricaded himself in his house with a gun in March and attempted to asphyxiate himself in his garage a month later. Boggess was hospitalized after both incidents.

John Boggess, the brother of the dead crane operator, told the Associated Press that Lonnie Boggess “told me he was considering admitting himself to an alcohol program to dry out after this job was over.”

Investigators, who are still in the preliminary stages of their inquiry, have not released any evidence indicating that Boggess was responsible for the disaster, and union officials called Boggess an exemplary worker. Still, the disclosures about Boggess’ background led Thursday to calls for increased regulation of the construction industry.

“A man like that should not have been up there,” said Joseph Kinney, executive director of the National Safe Workplace Institute in Chicago.

Kinney called for the establishment of national licensing standards for crane operators. “The public has a clear, unequivocal right to be protected from people who could do such damage,” he said.

“They should be trained, certified, and tested on a regular basis,” Kinney added. “For people in such high-risk professions, there is no room for impairment, period.”

“There is no licensing requirement for crane operators in California,” said Rick Rice, a spokesman for the state’s Division of Occupational Health and Safety (Cal/OSHA). Similarly, there is no such requirement in the state of Washington, where Boggess lived.

Los Angeles, however, has had a municipal ordinance since 1964 that requires operators of cranes and other heavy equipment to pass a test and be licensed, said Robert Bassman, assistant chief of the mechanical bureau of the Department of Building and Safety.

A New York City law prohibits the “jacking,” or raising, of construction cranes during hours when streets are busy. The San Francisco disaster happened at 8:15 a.m. during a jacking operation.

San Francisco City Supervisor Jim Gonzales, responding to the disaster and Thursday’s disclosures, asked the city attorney to draft a pair of crane-safety ordinances.

The first would require safety inspectors to be present during risky operations and the second would require information on the personal backgrounds and emotional stability of crane operators before city permits are issued.

“Thousands of people walk under these cranes every day,” Gonzales said in an interview. “It seems reasonable to me to err on the side of caution.”

The 250-ton crane collapsed at the intersection of Kearny and California streets in the heart of the downtown area, flattening a school van and a taxi and damaging several other vehicles.

The device fell with such force that part of it pierced a sidewalk and punctured a gas main. Twenty-eight buildings that were closed as a result of the gas leak reopened Thursday, said Cynthia Schramm, a spokeswoman for Pacific Gas & Electric Co.

Larry Duggan, a vice president with Swinerton & Walberg, the prime contractor on the construction project, said he was “very shocked” to learn the details about Boggess’ personal problems.

“We had no idea,” he said, noting that Boggess was employed by a subcontractor, The Erection Co. of Kirkland, Wash. Had Swinerton known, Duggan said, the company would have looked into whether the upheaval in Boggess’ personal life was spilling over into the workplace.

“We observed him operating the crane, and he was a very skillful crane operator,” Duggan said.

Officials of The Erection Co. did not return reporters’ phone calls for the third day in a row.

Officials of Local 612 of the International Union of Operating Engineers in Tacoma said Boggess, a 20-year veteran of the construction industry, had been operating tower cranes for seven years.

“We’ve gone through his records, and none of them indicate he was ever terminated from a job or asked to leave a job because of alcohol, substance abuse or erratic behavior,” spokeswoman Karen Herman said.

Herman said union officials “were unaware” of Boggess’ personal problems. Construction is a highly seasonal business and, “as we understand it, the majority of the problems took place in early spring, when he was not working.”

Benson, the Pierce County sheriff’s spokesman, said Boggess’ first brush with the law was on March 15, when deputies arriving at his home heard a man saying, “I have a gun, go ahead and shoot me.”

Benson, quoting official reports, said Boggess was later found cowering in a closet and “became violent” while being driven to the hospital. “He started hitting his head against the windows and the roof of the car and we had to restrain him so he wouldn’t hurt himself,” he said.

On April 3, Boggess was found semiconscious in his garage with his truck’s engine running. “The interior of his house was a shambles, the refrigerator had been knocked down and furniture had been burned in the fireplace,” Benson said.