Crane and Rigging Hot Line announced a series of Risk Management Webinars beginning August 1, 2013. In the first webinar titled Minimizing Liability Allocation after Major Crane Accidents, Kevin Cunningham, president of the construction division of the Houston International Insurance Group (HIIG), will discuss how OSHA’s powerful new enforcement tools will impact liability allocations in future crane related accident litigation.
When it comes to apportioning fault involving serious crane accidents, there is “a new sheriff in town,” thanks to the new crane safety rule issued by OSHA in 2010.
OSHA will soon have greater ability to apportion fault to any number of contractors on a job site where a major crane accident has occurred. No longer will the crane company be the only “target defendant,” especially in cases where ground conditions or power line contact is a significant factor. Instead, OSHA will look elsewhere to make sure that any/all parties involved fulfilled their operational safety responsibilities under the new rule. Not only does this impact OSHA’s investigation and enforcement methodology, it has a significant “ripple effect” in how future crane accidents are investigated for civil litigation.
Register for this webinar to learn more about how crane accident claims should now be investigated, evaluated, and litigated with an entirely different set of optics that recognize the opportunity to minimize liability allocation when major crane accidents occur in your operations. Additional webinars in this series will be announced in the coming months. The webinars are free to attend and will be recorded and available to registered attendees after the event.
Source: Crane and Rigging Hot Line
