Switched from hand signals to radios after a near miss in Tampa

I ran a crawler crane for 7 years and always swore by hand signals. Thought radios were for guys who couldn't read the load chart. Then last month on a condo job in Tampa, I flagged a pick to the east and the oiler thought I meant southeast. He swung right into a jib line. Nobody got hurt, but the safety guy pulled me aside and said 'you got lucky, that's it.' We switched to two-way radios that same afternoon, and honestly the first week felt weird. But now I can tell the operator exactly how many inches to creep, and he can ask me to confirm the tag line tension without yelling. My old foreman still uses hand signals on smaller sites, but I'm not going back for anything over 20 tons. Has anyone else made that switch after a close call, or am I the only stubborn one?

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1 Comment

ben8271mo ago

Did the jib line win the argument for you? Ha.