Safety Knights

You can always go above and beyond the standard and document your inspections. However, some things may be more catastrophic if they fail compared to others. For example, if a 6-ft. A-frame ladder fails, generally speaking, that will be a lower severity than a mobile crane failing a dropping a 2-ton load.

I always recorded the rigging inspections at the same time as the crane inspections. Keep in mind that you may still be required to document your inspections based on frequency and severity of use. For example, alloy steel chains require documented inspections monthly at a minimum, but if you use those multiple times per day for heavy loads, it may warrant documented inspections daily before each use.

Fitz's Safety Rules:
#8
"With OSHA remember, If you did not document it, YOU DID NOT DO IT!"

I agree with Drew, "OSHA is only the BEGINNING of what you need to do to keep people safe!" The first words out of my mouth in an OSHA Outreach Course (10&30-Hour Courses) as I hold up my big OSHA 29 CFR 1910 Standards Book, "This is NOT where your Safety Program ends! This is the Base and the Beginning! Our job is to keep people SAFE not just comply with OSHA!"

Fitz's Number 1 Safety Rule:
"If is looks unsafe, sounds unsafe, smells unsafe, tastes unsafe, and/or feels (in anyway) unsafe, it is most likely UNSAFE!" I am not a crane expert, but is sure sounds safer as long as you are doing an overall checklist on a crane to add the rigging hardware to your checklist! I had 10-ton bridge cranes to unload steel from semi-trailers back in my facility days. We always had rigging hardware on out checklists. I thought it was just what you did!
We also did daily checklists on our 500 & 1000 pound hoists on machines. Once we had a new hoist system installed by certified technicians. One week after it was installed the operator had completed his checklist. A nut on a bolt fell off one of the support beams and the entire system collapsed. The operator was loading a big washer and heard coming down and looked up. A heavy beam hit him in the face and shattered his cheek and orbital bones. One of the nastiest injuries from a Safety and WC Injury I ever dealt with! Plastic Surgery is far from cheap! Only severe burns are worse from a pain and cost standpoint! So, I would go above and beyond!
We were investigated by OSHA on the injury. We had all our inspection records and daily checklists. The bolt that fell out could not be seen by the operator. We had certified copies from the certified state installers and the clearance on the new hoist system from manufacturer. We were issued no citations.

I have never had a single customer do their daily crane inspections properly. Some have a maintenance guy do the daily inspection when they start their shift and most of the time they are pencil whipped unfortunately. The first person to use the crane is supposed to do the inspection. I try to show them extra things to look at when doing the inspection. None of them do sling daily rigging inspections. They just grab and go. I have seen far to many accidents because of it. When I do my crane inspections, I always look at the rigging they have on the crane or if I see it laying around. I remove them from service if bad, and report the slings to my contact so they can address it with the operator. Eye bolt use is the worst for using improperly. A customer dropped a 15K lb part because the operator loaded the eye bolts wrong when flipping a part and they broke. Nylon slings do not have to be recorded at all, but chain slings have to be recorded during an inspection. One of my customers keeps all the rigging gear in a tool crib, and it is inspected before going out and inspected when it comes back to make sure it was not damaged. Severity and frequency of use does dictate frequency of inspection.