Look at this video of a fallen crawler crane with a reported 350-ft-long boom wrapped around a building belonging to a utility in Port Sheldon, Mich. Winds were blowing hard, reports Rick Raef, Willis' eagle-eyed email safety blogger. When the crane went down early yesterday morning there was no work being done, reports a local TV station, and the utility, which was installing emissions control equipment, is investigating.

It always astonishes me when such a massive piece of equipment, whether from improper anchoring or operation, goes out of control and no one is killed.

There's another interesting place most people involved with safety already know about. It's the press releases with the routine, day-in, day-out announcements of proposed fines by the U.S. Dept. of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Jonathan Barnes, ENR's contributor in Pittsburgh, keeps an eye on it.

Just in the past few months Jonathan noticed a nearly quarter million dollar fine proposed in December against a masonry contractor working in Enfield, Conn. No one working for Dab Masonry was hurt at the site, but OSHA claimed it found a variety of hazards that could have caused fatal or disabling falls. And Dab had been cited before, according to OSHA.

The final payout by Dab will be substantially lower, and this is what troubles worker advocates who say federal OSHA's bark is way worse than its bite. Dab finally settled its business with OSHA by agreeing to pay out $121,000 and keep in close touch with OSHA's Hartford, Conn.-area office about its projects and practices. The idea is that corrective measures are worth more than punishment.

More recently, federal safety officials proposed a fine against Cleveland Wrecking Co. in connection with an Aug. 14, 2006 accident that killed two employees in Dallas. A loader had dislodged bricks and concrete from a wall and the material fell and struck the two employees, OSHA claims.. It wasn't clear if Cleveland Wrecking, a very sophisticated contractor, was going to contest its $135,900 proposed fine.

In this case, a piece of equipment inadvertently comes in contact with a wall and then gravity does the rest.