Crane Operator Visibility of Ground Operations

Construction accidents that involve cranes often relate to struck-by incidents, when the crane or its load is in too close contact with personnel, objects, and/or other equipment. In these incidents, limited or poor visibility of resources in the surrounding work space is often the cause of the problem. The result is often the death, serious injury of worker(s), and/or significant collateral damage to property. This paper presents a framework to increase the situational awareness of tower crane operator(s). Research is presented that quantifies the spatial visibility of tower crane operators in a typical building construction project. A visibility measurement tool is presented that utilizes range point clouds from laser scanners to accurately measure the size and location of the operator’s invisible spaces of a jobsite (blind spots). Results to a field trial demonstrate how important the proper selection of the location of equipment can be when safety is prioritized.