Assessment of Crane Safety Practices on Construction Sites in Abuja, Nigeria

Abstract

Some crane accidents could have been prevented if construction managers had reviewed and evaluated the safety requirements, rigging equipment used, and had connections and operator certification for the cranes inspected. It is on the basis of these that the paper assessed crane safety practices on construction sites in Abuja, Nigeria through the use of combination of methods (30 questionnaires for professionals, 16 operators interviewed). Purposive sampling method was used to draw up the sample size in that the respondents had to be on sites where cranes were available and were willing to be part of the study. It was discovered that the adherence level of safety practices was high and professionals know the suitable type of crane used for each project as this was ranked 1st while load not being moved over workers was ranked 16th. Furthermore, results showed that the operators gained knowledge of the work based on experience. Hence, it is recommended that efforts should be made to provide avenues for the operators to be trained, whether formally or informally, so as to improve their knowledge base.