Rant: My crane cable snapped on a job in Phoenix and I froze for a second

I was on a job site in Phoenix last August, lifting a steel beam about 40 feet up. It was 110 degrees out and I was running behind schedule, so I pushed the load a little faster than usual. Suddenly I hear this loud pop and the cable starts unraveling right above the hook. My heart just dropped into my stomach. I immediately hit the emergency stop and set the load down, but it wasn't clean at all - the beam swung and dinged a concrete wall. Turned out the cable had some kinks I missed during my morning inspection. The boss chewed me out for skipping a proper walk-around, but looking back, I got lucky nobody got hurt. Has anyone else had a cable fail on them and what did you do in that moment to keep things from going worse?

3 comments

3 Comments

patricia_green212mo ago

and honestly the real issue isn't the kinks it's skipping the inspection in that heat.

luna8911mo ago

Do you really think people realize how small things become big problems when they skip the walk-around? I mean a quick tire check and light test takes maybe two minutes in that heat. But I guess two minutes feels like an hour when you're already sweating through your shirt.

spencerm462mo ago

Patricia, would you agree that shortcuts in heat add up faster than we realize? The inspection is the cheapest insurance we have, and skipping it just invites a disaster like the one the OP described. Honestly, that few minutes of a walk-around could save months of paperwork and a lot of guilt.