I'm fed up with radios replacing proper crane signals

Last Tuesday, my coms died right as we were setting a beam. The spotter had no idea what to do without me yelling instructions. I had to use old school arm signals, but he barely recognized them. We almost dropped the load because of the delay. How did we get to a point where talking is more important than seeing?

3 comments

3 Comments

matthew6821mo ago

Unreal. We're so hooked on gadgets now that a dead battery could literally kill someone. Your spotter probably thought your arm signals were some new dance move. Modern "progress" means we're all one radio glitch away from a headline about a flying beam.

paul7741mo ago

Yeah that "one radio glitch away" line is too real. My buddy was directing a truck back at a job site last week, and his hand signals got mixed up because the driver was only looking at the backup cam. The dude almost clipped a light pole. Felt exactly like what @matthew682 is saying, where the basic skill gets lost because everyone assumes the tech will just work. We had a long talk after that about going back to the old school signals for everyone. Makes you wonder what else we've forgotten how to do just because a battery died, right?

bettybaker1mo ago

A backup cam almost caused a light pole collision? Your buddy's story is a wake-up call for sure!