Repeal of crane safety law slips into state security bill
Published in: Houston Chronicle
Date: 6/1/2005
By: Sixel, L.M.
Jun. 1–Crane operators no longer will be required to install electrocution-preventing equipment on their rigs under legislation quietly passed in the waning days of the recently completed Texas Legislature.
The new legislation, an amendment attached to a wide-ranging homeland security bill, is awaiting Gov. Rick Perry’s signature.
“It’s just one of those old-fashioned sneak jobs at the end of the legislative session,” said Ed Sills, spokesman for the Texas AFL-CIO, who was just as surprised as anyone at the secret addition.
So was Jennifer Moore, who lost her 21-year-old son when his crane tangled with a power line on a construction site near Conroe. Moore spent several days this session lobbying legislators to keep the 16-year-old insulator law on the books. If signed by Perry, the legislation containing the amendment would ban the requirement.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics, as few as 10 and as many as 36 workers have died each year since 1992 as a result of a crane coming into contact with electric current.
“I think it was done in a very underhanded way, and I have a hard time realizing how someone who was supposed to represent the interest of Texas would do something that stands a good chance of killing someone,” Moore said.
Usually in the chaotic last days of the session, it’s difficult to tell who added controversial amendments, Sills said.
“But this one has its fingerprints all over it,” Sills said.
Rep. Rick Hardcastle, R-Vernon, introduced the amendment to abolish the crane insulators onto the homeland security bill sponsored by Rep. Frank Corte Jr., R-San Antonio, Sills said. It could have been stopped if someone raised it as nongermane to homeland security, he said.
Sen. Todd Staples, R-Palestine, then agreed to Hardcastle’s amendment in the Senate.
Staples wasn’t available for comment, but his office said there is a legitimate connection between homeland security and repeal of the legislation requiring crane insulators.
“This amendment repeals a specific, unenforceable section of the Health and Safety Code to promote the highest standards of safety and uniformity with federal OSHA guidelines for heavy equipment that can be used in the event of a terrorist threat or disaster recovery from a terrorist act,” a statement released by Staples’ office said.
“The provision will assist municipalities, rural fire prevention districts, emergency services districts, fire protection agencies, regional planning commissions, private entities or governmental units with protecting critical infrastructure facilities and disaster recovery.”
Perry will consider the bill when it reaches his desk, spokesman Robert Black said. Perry has more than 1,000 bills to evaluate and has until June 19 to sign them, veto them or allow them to become law without his signature, Black said.
Sills isn’t holding out a lot of hope because the homeland security portion is probably a “must-sign” bill.
“There’s no question in my mind they couldn’t get it through the front door, so they’re taking it though the back door,” he said.
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