Crane Accidents in Michigan

When a crane fails, the people it hurts are usually not in the cab. In the federal government’s most recent multi-year analysis, covering 2011 through 2017, crane incidents killed an average of about 42 workers per year nationally, and just over half of those workers were struck by an object or equipment. The worker rigging a load on the ground, guiding a beam into place, or walking through the swing radius often has little control over the lift and a great deal of exposure to it.

If that describes what happened to you or someone you love, the first thing to understand is that a crane operation is almost never one company’s work. The contractor that rented the crane, the crane company that supplied and sometimes operated it, the crew that rigged the load, the signal person from another trade, the general contractor sequencing all of it: each is a separate company with separate duties, and the ones that are not your employer are potential defendants in a lawsuit that runs alongside your workers’ comp benefits. Vahdat Weisman Law, work injury attorneys handle crane injury cases throughout Michigan. Call (734) 469-4994 for a free consultation. You pay no attorney fee unless we recover compensation.

How Crane Accidents Happen

The same failures repeat. Loads dropped because rigging was miscalculated, worn, or attached to the wrong points. Booms contacting power lines, which is why the rules require assessing any lift that could come within 20 feet of a line and then either deenergizing it, keeping that clearance with specific precautions, or working to the regulation’s minimum approach distances. Tip-overs from outriggers set on unverified ground, lifts beyond the load chart, or wind the manuals prohibited. Failures during assembly and disassembly, which are among the most dangerous phases of a crane’s time on site. And struck-by injuries inside a swing radius that should have been barricaded.

Michigan enforces the federal crane standard for construction, which MIOSHA adopted by reference as its Construction Part 10. Since the federal compliance date in December 2018, operators of most cranes rated above 2,000 pounds must be certified, and employers must separately evaluate each operator on the equipment actually being used. Signal persons and riggers must be qualified for the tasks they perform, and multiple-crane lifts require planning per regulation. When a crane accident happens, our first questions are which of these duties failed and which company owned that duty, keeping in mind that a safety violation is evidence of negligence rather than automatic liability, and that connecting the two is the legal work.

Who Can Be Sued After a Crane Accident

Workers’ comp is the exclusive remedy against your own employer, and a negligent coworker is protected too. The case turns on the other companies in the lift.

The crane supplier. Cranes arrive on site two ways: bare rentals, where the renting contractor supplies the operator, and operated rentals, where the crane company sends its own. A crane company whose operator made the error, or that sent out a machine with worn hoist ropes, faulty limit switches, or missed inspections, is a third party a lawsuit can reach. The rental agreement determines who supplied the operator and who owed the maintenance, which is why we obtain it immediately.

The rigging and signaling companies. Rigging failures and signal errors are among the most common causes of dropped loads, and on multi-employer sites the rigger and the signal person often work for someone other than the injured worker’s employer. Their employers answer for their negligence, and their qualification records answer for their training.

The general contractor. A crane operation that endangers workers from multiple trades, an unbarricaded swing radius, and lifts over occupied work areas can support a claim under Michigan’s common work area doctrine, which requires proof of a readily observable, avoidable danger, a high degree of risk, a significant number of exposed workers, and a GC that failed its supervisory role. The Michigan Supreme Court’s 2024 El-Jamaly decision, itself a case about construction equipment reaching a power line, kept the doctrine’s elements from being narrowed further. Whether your site is run by a general contractor or a construction manager matters here, and the answer comes from the contracts, not the letterhead. Details are on our general contractor and subcontractor liability page.

The manufacturer. Structural failures, brake and clutch failures, and control system defects can support product liability claims under Michigan’s product statutes, which carry their own defenses and damage caps. The crane’s maintenance history usually tells us whether the case points at the manufacturer, at whoever maintained the machine, or both. More on our defective machinery and equipment page.

The utility, sometimes. Power line cases mostly turn on the lift crew’s precautions, but line height, condition, marking, and the utility’s response to requests about energized lines can add a defendant, and Michigan’s most recent Supreme Court case in this area involved exactly those questions. We investigate rather than assume, in either direction.

Crane Evidence, and Why It Moves Fast

Depending on the model, a crane may hold load moment indicator data, event records, and telematics; whether that history was actually retained is a machine-specific question our experts run down early. The paper trail is broader: inspection logs, operator certifications and evaluations, lift plans where they exist, the load chart for the exact configuration in use, the rental ticket, and wind data for the day. The physical rigging, slings, shackles, hooks, wire rope, and failed pins matter just as much and are the easiest thing for someone to quietly return to service. Preservation letters go out in the first days of our crane cases to every company in the lift, and when MIOSHA investigates, we request its file, photographs, measurements, and witness statements included.

Some crane injuries are comp-only. A crane owned, operated, rigged, and signaled entirely by your own employer, with no equipment failure, leaves no third party to sue, and if that is your situation we will tell you plainly. But in the cases that become lawsuits, the pattern is usually the opposite: a lift that looked like one company’s operation turns out, in the contracts, to involve four.

What a Third-Party Crane Case Adds

Comp pays medical care and generally 80 percent of your after-tax average weekly wage, capped at $1,201 per week for 2026 injuries, with nothing for pain and suffering. Crane injuries are often catastrophic, crush injuries, amputations, spinal and brain trauma, and the gap between comp and the real loss is correspondingly wide. A third-party recovery can add wage loss beyond the cap, lost earning capacity, pain and suffering, and a spouse’s consortium claim, when proven, while comp continues. The comp carrier is reimbursed from the recovery, with the expenses of winning it shared and the balance credited against future benefits, so future comp checks can pause while that credit runs. We put those numbers in front of you before any settlement, because the figure that matters is what actually reaches your family. Fatal crane accidents proceed through the estate’s personal representative under the wrongful death act, covered on our construction wrongful death page, while comp death benefits run on their own track.

Why Choose Vahdat Weisman Law?

Crane cases turn on documents and machines: who rented what, who supplied the operator, what the lift plan said, what the equipment recorded. We read the contracts early, we work with crane and rigging experts when the failure needs explaining; and we handle the questions that keep injured workers up at night, whether the comp checks continue, how the lien works, what happens if you cannot go back to the trade. Founding partners Kara E. Weisman and Jordan S. Vahdat have each been honored as Super Lawyers Rising Stars, and our attorneys are members of the State Bar of Michigan and active in the Michigan Association for Justice. We advance case costs, our phones are answered 24/7, and we serve clients in English and Spanish from our Livonia office.

Related pages: third-party work injury claims, construction falls from heights, and trench collapse and excavation accidents.

Frequently Asked Questions

• I was hit by a load on the ground. The crane belonged to another company. Can I sue? Often yes, and it is exactly the fact pattern worth investigating. The crane company, the rigging crew’s employer, and potentially the general contractor can all bear fault, while your comp benefits continue. Negligence still has to be proven against each, which is what the rental contract, the rigging records, and the witnesses are for.
• Does it matter whether the operator was certified? Yes. Certification and a separate employer evaluation have been required for most cranes above 2,000 pounds since late 2018, and an uncertified or unevaluated operator is powerful evidence of negligence against the operator’s employer and sometimes against the contractor that allowed the lift.
• The crane touched a power line. Who is responsible? Usually the companies that planned and performed the lift, because the rules require identifying nearby lines and choosing a specific precaution before lifting near them. Line contact often injures the workers touching the load rather than the operator, and those workers have third-party claims. In some cases, the utility’s own conduct regarding the line becomes part of the case.
• The company says the wind caused it. Is that a defense? Wind is foreseeable, and manufacturers publish wind limits for each configuration for a reason. If the lift proceeded in conditions the equipment’s own documentation prohibited, the weather explains the accident without excusing it. The machine’s data and the day’s wind records usually settle what the conditions actually were.
• What is the deadline? Most Michigan negligence and product claims carry a three-year limitations period. Comp notice is due within 90 days and a comp claim within two years, and after one year the comp carrier gains the right to file the third-party case in your name; your own three years still stand. Crane evidence moves far faster than any of those dates, so early is the practical answer.

Talk to a Michigan Crane Accident Lawyer Today

The companies involved in a failed lift start sorting out blame immediately, with their own lawyers. You are entitled to the same, starting now, at no cost. Call Vahdat Weisman Law at (734) 469-4994 or contact us online for a free consultation. Available 24/7, serving all of Michigan, with Spanish-speaking staff.

Dedicated to Justice. Devoted to You. Winning for Your Future.

This information is for educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Every case is unique, and prior results do not guarantee future success.