The number that should stop a superintendent is not the 98%. It’s the 71%.
Between 2015 and 2024 the National Safety Council counts 405 crane-related fatalities in the United States. Crane and tower operators account for 29% of them. The remaining 71% were riggers, signalpersons and other people on the ground near the load.
That split is the frame for The State of Rigging and Signaling in Crane Operations, released this week by NSC and the NCCCO Foundation through NSC’s Work to Zero initiative, in partnership with the McElhattan Foundation.
Everyone has a story from the last 90 days
Asked about the previous 90 days, 98% of respondents reported experiencing communication challenges during crane lifts. Nonstandard signaling practices came up repeatedly as a source of confusion, which is a polite way of saying crews improvise hand signals and the improvisation doesn’t travel between jobs.
The contributing-factor ranking is the part worth arguing about internally. Human and organizational factors were cited more often than technical errors: production pressure, inadequate supervision, and worker distraction. Nobody in the survey blamed the equipment.
Respondents also rated certified riggers and signalpersons as consistently more effective than non-certified personnel.
“Safe crane operations depend on clear communication, careful planning and a workplace culture that empowers workers to speak up and effectively use safe work practices,” said Dr. Matt Law, who directs Work to Zero at NSC. T.J. Cantwell, executive director of the NCCCO Foundation, framed the gap as training and enforcement: “It’s clear more needs to be done to ensure people are trained in the use of proper rigging and signaling standards, and that those standards are being adhered to in the field.”
The caveats, which are real
The 98% is self-reported survey data and the release does not disclose sample size, sampling frame or response rate. It is not an incident rate and shouldn’t be read as one. “Previous 90 days” is a recall window, with the recall bias that implies.
The finding that certification improves effectiveness is peer perception rather than an outcome measure, and the study was funded by the NCCCO Foundation, which is the crane certification body. Take that one with the funder in view.
The 405 figure and the 29% split are attributed to NSC, which normally derives this kind of series from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries. Worth checking against the underlying series before calling it a federal number.
The methodology was expert interviews plus a survey of crane professionals plus a review of existing research. NSC and the NCCCO Foundation have been collaborating on crane research since 2023, and a webinar on the findings runs 29 September.
None of the caveats touch the 71%. Lift planning that concentrates on the operator is protecting the smaller share of the people who die. Tower crane counts rose in 11 of 18 North American cities this quarter, which means more lifts, more signalpersons, and more chances for a nonstandard hand signal to mean two things at once.
Source: National Safety Council.