This used to happen on occasion, but the occurrence has reached epidemic proportions. We all need to stop – think – and generally cease and immediately desist this totally unproductive and dangerous practice.

This is not a joke!!!  

I do not care, and neither does your boss, how big of a hurry you are in. In fact, the bigger hurry you are in all the more reason to stow the boom BEFORE you stow the outriggers.

The jobs are basically the same; the same is true for the pumps and the customers. The only change seems to be the degree to which the operators are paying attention. Perhaps the ACPA should hire a social anthropologist to study the problem.

OK, here it is… (1) put boom in cradle (2) retract and stow outriggers.

No, I am not going to say where the latest disaster of this type happened. The fact that it did is enough for all of us to take the extra two seconds BEFORE we raise the outriggers to LOOK AT THE BOOM and make sure that it is properly stowed. Please. There are people that bet their lives on the fact that you are in proper control of your machine.

Make it a SAFE bet. ;~)

There is a manufactures study underway about new  senors/alarms to be mounted on boom trucks as warning signals. These newly manufactured items are under under reveiw by the ACPA manufactures commitee as of the meetings today at the education conference in Colorado. This like all products that make good sense have to stand the blood sucking attorney test.  hopefully we will see them soon.

Maybe some people just don't get it. I know where I work I started to train a guy and after going on the job with me for maybe 6 jobs we got busy and the boss sent him out on his own, HE'S NOT READY, he says he's not ready ,he's dangerous and hasn't spent near enough time training. I've conveyed this to the boss and he just doesn't seem to care. My hands are tied so I just hope and pray that nothing bad comes of this!!!!  This is just my opinion on what might be going on but I don't know all the details on what you were posting about.

Yea the operator did or did not do it but the problem is guys are just NOT TRAINED LIKE THEY NEED TO BE, then you have dispatchers pushing you to get to the next job, the boss sending people to do jobs knowing they are not qualified or ready as already stated should the acpa step in should there be a sensor, NO companies need to nut up train guys like THEY SHOULD BE dont harp on your childish saftey program which consists on a flyer for you to sign twice a month, what a joke then they wonder why stuff like this happens. Company i use to work for their manual you had to do at least 5 system jobs before you could do one on your on?????? please I busted pipe for 4 months before i knew what a remote box was, they trained people right back then, companies are just worried about the number of jobs at the end of the month and thats it, some companies almost pump for nothing just to get the job. Why would you pump for less than 120 an hour? what are you gaining doind that, nothing but killing the whole industry including yourself, then one of your non trained operators screws up loose 50 yards of mud guess what? It's your own fault it happend and they should charge you double for the mud just for THINKING you have a training program, companies will realize one day just because a guy can run a remote box that does NOT make him an operator by any means.

You hit it right on the nose!!!!!! I also humped pipe and  did all the dirty work for months and that is how we weeded out the wanna be's and kept the ones that wanted to be a PROFFESIONAL operator, any person can get by for awhile but the end result will be costly, if not catastrophic. That was seven years ago when I trained and boy has alot changed since then. Kinda wish I would've stayed @ that company.

BarleyDog

That is good news. Someone is doing something about this problem.

This fix needs to be paid for by pump owners.

Our industry has had 40+ years to develop "Standards of Training - Testing - Proficiency" for our operators and mechanics. When a fix can not be learned it must then be manufactured.

There is a problem especially with the younger guys getting into this profession....they do not know the proper procedures. Most just want to jump onto a new pump without understanding problems that can happen with older pumps. I too grunted my way for many years....always listening to the older operators on what might happen and what to do to correct a problem or to prevent a problem from even starting. Mandatory testing should be started soon. Even being retired now, I drive by pump sites only to cringe as I watch some operator doing careless, studid things. Anybody can run a pump, but a good operator is hard to find.

larry,

 good operators aren't hard to find. just hard to employ. precisely because we refuse to do jobs that could potentially harm someone. then they get one of these aforementioned jackasses to do the thing and by luck nothing happens. i'm sure you can guess who is sitting at home for the next few days. if not out of a job entirely. it happened to me, it can happen to any one of you.