There is now no doubt about it: The eyes of project owners, government regulators, lawyers, crafts people and pedestrians are sharply focused on crane safety across the U.S. after a series of spectacular failures rained death and destruction on project sites and caused hundreds of millions of dollars in potential damages. The main question on everyone’s lips is what the next best step is to prevent such tragedies in the future and what role everyone should play.

The answer is not simple because safety is everyone’s responsibility, from project and equipment owners to crafts people and even area residents. Even manufacturers, reluctant to get involved in public-safety campaigns due to product-liability concerns, have a role to play in education.

In the May 30 accident in New York City that killed two workers, the crane cab and boom separated from the tower. Repairs allegedly had been made to the crane, and forensic engineers are looking at suspect welds used to make the fix. Even so, the 24-year-old Kodiak crane had been inspected one day before and passed.

Tower cranes are not the only hazards; far more accidents involve mobile cranes. The differences from machine to machine and market to market cloud the issues. It is difficult to draw conclusions from random failures resulting from separate causes.

But one thing is certain: The patchwork of rules around the country and the industry’s inability to self-certify employees is exposing workers and the public to grave danger. At the very least, operators should be trained, tested and compensated according to their level of responsibility. Riggers and signal persons, regardless of trade, should acquire common training and certification to eliminate confusion under the hook. Inspectors should be certified to make sure cranes are receiving the delicate care and attention they require. And all cranes should be inspected by a certified, third-party surveyor at the prime contractor’s expense each time they are erected on the job, to remove the possibility of bias.

Crane work is not rocket science. Some state rules already have raised the bar for a safer future. Those rules are not perfect, but they are better than the lax oversight looming over the rest of the country.