A crane lift is one of the most planned moments on a jobsite. Someone picks the crane, rigs the load, signals, runs the controls and decides who stands where. When a load still comes down on a person, one of those links broke.
If a falling load, a failed sling or a swinging crane hurt you or took someone in your family, I am sorry. These injuries are usually crushing: spinal cord damage, fractures, amputations, head injuries and deaths.
What most injured workers are never told: the crane, the rigging, the operator and the signal person often belong to different companies, and none may be your employer. That is why a crane injury is often more than a comp claim.
Four ways a lift turns into an injury
A dropped load. The load slips out of its hitch, a hook without a working latch lets the sling ride off, or hardware breaks.
A failed sling or fitting. Web slings get cut on unprotected steel edges, wire rope gets kinked or worn, a shackle gets loaded past its rating. Much of this is visible before the lift to anyone who looks.
A swinging load or swinging crane. The load drifts into a worker on a deck, or the crane's rotating upper body pins someone against material, a wall or its own counterweight.
A worker under the load. Some lifts route material directly over people who had no reason to be there.
The general machinery picture, including forklifts and excavators, is in my post on struck-by injuries from heavy equipment. A crane boom or load line that touches an overhead line is its own kind of case, covered in my post on jobsite electrocutions. This post stays with loads, rigging and the crane's swing.
The federal rules that govern a crane lift
OSHA's construction crane standard, 29 CFR 1926 Subpart CC, assigns specific jobs to specific people. That is my map for finding which company dropped the ball.
Keeping people out from under the load
Under 29 CFR 1926.1425, lifts should follow hoisting routes "that minimize the exposure of employees to hoisted loads." While a load hangs in the air without moving, "no employee must be within the fall zone" except people hooking, unhooking or guiding it, making the first connection, or running a concrete bucket. The regulation defines the fall zone broadly: not just the spot straight below, but the area where it is "reasonably foreseeable" that the load could fall in an accident.
Even the workers allowed in that zone get protection. The load has to be "rigged to prevent unintentional displacement," hooks need "self-closing latches or their equivalent," and the materials must be "rigged by a qualified rigger." When a load is landing, only the people needed to receive it may be in the zone.
Controlling the swing
Under 29 CFR 1926.1424, where a crane's rotating superstructure could strike or pin a worker, the employer must train workers to recognize those areas and "erect and maintain control lines, warning lines, railings or similar barriers" around them. If an operator knows someone went into that area, the operator may not swing until told the person is in a safe position. When two cranes' working areas overlap, "the controlling entity must institute a system to coordinate operations."
Who may run the crane and who may signal it
Under 29 CFR 1926.1427, "the employer must ensure that each operator is trained, certified/licensed, and evaluated" before running covered equipment. An uncertified operator may work only as a trainee who is "continuously monitored on site by a trainer."
Signal persons have their own rule. 29 CFR 1926.1428 says "the employer of the signal person must ensure" that person is qualified before giving any signals, including a basic understanding of "the crane dynamics involved in swinging and stopping loads," shown through a written or oral test and a practical test. The documentation is supposed to be at the site.
Inspecting the rigging and the crane
Rigging falls under a separate rule, 29 CFR 1926.251. Rigging must be "inspected prior to use on each shift," and "defective rigging equipment shall be removed from service." Each day before use, slings and their attachments must be checked "by a competent person designated by the employer." Rigging has to carry markings showing its safe working load and may not be used without them or loaded beyond them. Slings must be padded against sharp edges, and "shock loading is prohibited." A synthetic web sling with "snags, punctures, tears or cuts" or "broken or worn stitches" must come out of service immediately.
The crane gets its own check. Under 29 CFR 1926.1412(d), a competent person must start a visual inspection before each shift that includes "hooks and latches for deformation, cracks, excessive wear" and the ground under the crane.
An OSHA rule is not a lawsuit by itself, but it tells a jury what careful companies were supposed to do.
Who besides your employer may be responsible
The crane rental company
How the crane got to the site matters. In a bare rental, the crane arrives without an operator and your employer or another contractor supplies the person at the controls. The rental company's exposure then centers on the machine itself: whether it went out with a cracked hook, a missing latch, worn wire rope, a faulty load-moment indicator, or an overdue inspection.
In an operated-and-maintained rental, the crane company sends its own operator and keeps the machine up. The operator usually works for the crane company, which makes it the employer responsible under the certification rule, and its operator's choices about the swing, the speed and when to stop become its choices. The rental contract also matters, because it may shift who controlled what and who has to cover whom. I always get the contract, the dispatch ticket and the lift plan.
The rigging or lifting contractor
Big picks often go to a specialized rigging company. If it chose a sling too weak for the angle, skipped edge protection, used unmarked hardware or put an unqualified rigger on the load, it may answer for the result.
The general contractor
The general contractor is usually the controlling entity, and the crane rule gives it duties by name. Under 29 CFR 1926.1402, it must make sure the ground is prepared so the crane is properly supported, and it must tell the operator about hazards under the setup area, "such as voids, tanks, utilities," that it knows about. It also coordinates overlapping cranes. A GC that schedules another trade to work under the hoisting route, or lets material get staged inside the swing radius with no barricade, may share the blame. My page on commercial construction site injuries explains how responsibility gets divided on large projects.
The signal person's employer
The signal person often works for yet another subcontractor. A wrong signal, a lost sightline or a missing qualification points to that employer.
The manufacturer of the crane or rigging hardware
Sometimes the product failed: a shackle that broke below its rating, a latch that would not close, stitching that let go short of capacity, or an overload device that didn't stop the lift. Each can support a product claim.
Two hypothetical lifts, two different cases
These are hypotheticals, not real cases or clients.
Hypothetical one: the cut sling. A crew sets precast panels on a downtown Omaha building. The rigger wraps a synthetic web sling around a panel with a sharp steel edge and no padding. A laborer guides the panel with a tag line from below, which places him inside the fall zone. The sling parts and the panel falls on him. The questions: who rigged it, whether the daily sling inspection happened, whether the sling was already damaged, why there was no edge protection, and whether the lift plan put him in the zone when it didn't have to.
Hypothetical two: the swing. A rented crane with its own operator is setting rooftop units. A worker from a mechanical subcontractor walks between the counterweight and a pallet of material to grab a tool. No barricade marks the swing area. The signal person, who works for a third company, does not see him, and the operator swings. Here the focus shifts toward the crane company and its operator, the signal person's employer, and the GC that allowed material to be staged inside the swing radius.
Evidence that disappears after a crane accident
A sling gets tossed in a dumpster, a shackle goes back in the gang box, and the crane gets repaired and sent to the next job. Then the best proof is gone.
So I send written preservation demands right away to everyone on the lift: keep the slings, hardware, hook and crane as they were. Some cranes store event data, but only an untouched machine can be checked.
I also request the lift plan, operator and signal person credentials, crane and rigging inspection records, the GC's daily reports and any OSHA file. If you safely can, photograph the rigging and its tags, and write down who rigged, signaled and ran the crane.
How the third-party claim fits with comp
Workers' comp is usually where an injured worker starts against their own employer. A claim against a crane company, rigger, GC or manufacturer is separate, and it can recover damages comp does not pay, including pain and suffering and the full loss of future earnings. My post on third-party claims alongside workers' comp walks through the basics.
Nebraska's comp statute, Neb. Rev. Stat. § 48-118, protects your right to sue the outside company. It also says "the employer shall be subrogated to the right of the employee," and an employer that has paid comp "shall be made a party to the suit for the purpose of reimbursement." That reimbursement has to be negotiated, and my guide on liens and subrogation explains how.
What the defense usually argues
- "He shouldn't have been under the load." Then who routed the lift over him, and who sent him to guide it from inside the fall zone?
- "The sling was rated for it." Rated for what angle, hitch and edge? A rating assumes the sling is used the way the manufacturer intended.
- "Our operator just followed signals." The swing rule says the operator does not rotate when he knows someone went into the hazard area.
Deadlines
If defective hardware or a defective crane caused the injury, Nebraska's product liability statute, Neb. Rev. Stat. § 25-224, requires filing within four years of the date the injury or death happened. An outer limit runs from the product's first sale or lease: ten years if made in Nebraska, and otherwise the place of manufacture's repose period, but never under ten years. Cranes stay in service for decades, so the machine's age can matter.
Negligence claims and the comp claim run on other clocks; see my page on the Nebraska statute of limitations.
Mistakes that hurt crane cases
Don't count on the OSHA investigation to save the rigging, and don't give the crane company's insurer a recorded statement. My pages on catastrophic injuries and wrongful death cover the most serious losses.
Why injured riggers and ironworkers call me
Crane cases turn on untangling the companies on a lift and securing the rigging fast. I push hard for every worker I represent and build each case as if it is headed to a jury, because sometimes it is. My clients have recovered more than $24 million, including a $5.4 million result, and they have left many five-star reviews. Omaha readers voted my firm the Best of Omaha personal injury law firm in both 2025 and 2026.
If a dropped load, a broken sling or a swinging crane injured you or someone you love on a Nebraska job, talk to an Omaha work injury lawyer before the evidence is hauled off. Call (402) 378-9208 or send me a message. The consultation is free, and you owe me nothing unless I recover money for you.
Frequently asked questions
- Can I sue the crane company if my employer has workers' comp?
- Often, yes. Comp generally covers your claim against your own employer, but a crane rental company, rigging contractor, general contractor or manufacturer that contributed to the injury may face a separate claim.
- Does it matter whether the crane came with an operator?
- Yes. In a bare rental, the focus is usually on the machine's condition. When the crane company also supplies the operator, that operator's decisions may become the company's responsibility too.
- Who is responsible for checking slings and shackles?
- OSHA requires rigging to be inspected before use on each shift and slings to be checked daily by a competent person designated by the employer. Damaged or defective rigging must be removed from service.
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Frank Younes
Every page on this site is written by Frank Younes, a Nebraska trial attorney with a published record of verdicts and settlements, selection to the National Trial Lawyers Top 100, and a practice that covers every county in Nebraska and Iowa. No case is handed to an associate — the lawyer you read here is the lawyer who works your case.
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