Crane & Rigging Safety Toolbox Talk

Project: ____________ · Date: ____________ · Led by: ____________

In most crane fatalities, the person killed isn't the operator — it's someone on the ground, struck by the load, the rigging, or the crane itself. The load doesn't have to fall from height to kill; a shifting pick at chest level is enough.

Why it matters

A lift is a chain of small decisions — the rigging chosen, the hitch, the path, the signals. Any one person on the crew can break the chain by staging wrong or walking under. Lifts go safely when everyone, not just the operator, knows the plan.

Key points — cover all of these

1. Never walk or work under a suspended load, and never let a load pass over people — plan lift paths around the crew.
2. Inspect rigging before each use: cut or kinked slings, cracked hooks, missing safety latches, bent shackles. Damaged rigging gets cut up and binned, not set aside.
3. Know the load weight before rigging it — guessing is how slings get overloaded. Check capacity tags against the actual pick.
4. One designated signal person per lift, using standard signals; anyone can call STOP, only the signal person directs.
5. Use tag lines to control loads — hands guide the line, never the load, and never between the load and anything solid.
6. Power lines: minimum 20-foot clearance unless the utility confirms otherwise or lines are de-energized. The crane doesn't have to touch the line to electrocute the rigger.

Ask the crew

The answers are the point — this is where today's real hazards surface.

• What's being picked today, do we know its actual weight, and who rigged it?
• Where will loads travel over this site — and who needs to move before the first pick?
• Who is our signal person today, and does everyone know that only they direct the crane?

The one thing today

Today, no part of your body goes under a suspended load — not a hand, not a boot, not a shortcut.

Reference: OSHA 29 CFR 1926.1400 series (cranes & derricks); 1926.251 (rigging)

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