Crane Inspections Find Rampant Violations : Industrial safety: Cal/OSHA officials discover violations at 29 of the 38 projects where the huge tower devices were being used.

Three-quarters of the huge tower cranes at work on dozens of construction projects in California in recent months were in violation of state industrial safety laws, according to results of a Cal/OSHA inspection released Tuesday.

Even though Cal/OSHA officials and a variety of politicians had put contractors on notice by publicizing the inspection program, which began last December and ended in February, violations were found at 29 of the 38 projects throughout the state.

Violations classified as “serious”--such as lacking an on-site device capable of measuring the crane’s load capacity--were found at 14 of the projects, more than a third of those inspected.

Two of the projects in Los Angeles County cited for serious crane violations were run by Swinerton and Walberg, a major developer who was in charge of a San Francisco project where a crane accident killed five people last November.

Tower cranes are huge cranes used in the erection of tall structures such as shopping centers and office towers.

Cal/OSHA--under fire from organized labor and other advocates of workplace safety, who have long criticized the agency as too timid--began inspecting every tower crane in the state after a 240-ton crane collapsed atop the Swinerton and Walberg office building project in downtown San Francisco Nov. 28. In addition to the five deaths, 21 people were injured. The cause of that accident still is under investigation.

While results of the crane inspection program were tabulated weeks ago, Cal/OSHA did not make the public aware of the data by advising the news media that it was available. According to the agency’s director, Robert Stranberg, it had no plans to do so in the future because the records were available to people who wanted to see them.

The information was released Tuesday by Assemblyman Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica), chairman of the Assembly Labor and Employment Committee, to publicize a hearing by the committee in Sacramento this morning on a crane-safety bill by Hayden.

Hayden’s bill and several others introduced since the San Francisco accident would require more frequent inspections of cranes, licensing of operators and an end to a practice of “self-certification” in which the state accepts inspections performed by private-sector crane experts--including those employed by crane owners.

Hayden said the results of the Cal/OSHA survey strengthened his contention that laws need to be changed. “How many people will have to be killed before we improve safety conditions in this industry?” he asked.

Stranberg has refused to endorse any of the measures and said Tuesday the Deukmejian Administration has yet to take a position.

Asked whether he was surprised by the high percentage of cranes found in violation, Stranberg said “an enlightened employer, with all the publicity about what we were doing, should have been motivated to make sure his cranes were in compliance with our many safety (regulations).”

However, while “those raw numbers do look a little scary, if you look at our experiences over the years (with cranes) I don’t think you’ll find a whole lot of problems,” he said.

Stranberg said he believed the number of serious violations dropped off as more building project managers became aware that Cal/OSHA inspectors were checking each crane. However, even in the last month of the program, inspectors found eight serious violations on four projects.

One of the two Swinerton and Walberg projects that were cited for serious violations is located in Hayden’s Assembly district--on Colorado Boulevard in Santa Monica.

Cal/OSHA inspectors cited the company there for running a crane without limit switches that control travel of the crane boom near high-voltage lines. A company spokesman said the company is appealing the citation, which carries a fine of only $935. He said the warning devices in use were adequate.

At the other Swinerton and Walberg project, in Beverly Hills, the company was cited twice for violating requirements for a variety of warning devices that tell the crane operator when the crane’s load is too heavy. The company is appealing the citations, which carry fines of $700.

Each of the five other Los Angeles County projects visited by inspectors were cited for crane violations. Two of the five were cited for two serious violations each:

At a Hollywood project on South La Cienega Boulevard, inspectors found some machinery in unsafe operating condition and no guardrails in above-ground walking areas. The contractor paid a $1,055 penalty.

At a project on East Anceleno Boulevard in Burbank, the contractor was cited for lacking guardrails and for failing to have equipment tested or maintained. Each citation carries a $100 penalty. No appeal has yet been filed.

A separate Cal/OSHA investigation is focusing on apparently counterfeit crane certification documents discovered during routine inspections. The documents, needed for legal operation, were “amateurish,” Stranberg said. “It is difficult to understand how owners or operators could have been fooled by them.”