U.S. Department of Labor
Occupational Safety and Heath
Washington. D.C. 20210
June 1, 1999
Mr. Doyle R. Peeks
401 Chamber Street, NW
Port Charlotte, FL. 33948-6303
Dear Mr. Peeks:
I am writing in response to your letter of May 6, 1999, regarding your web site for reporting crane accidents.
You requested information on how to obtain reports of crane accidents investigated by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, OSHA. As you already know, OSHA inspection data are available on OSHA's web site at www.osha.gov, but these data are not searchable in a manner that would identify crane accidents. [That is a fact!] In fact, OSHA itself does not have a means of easily identifying crane accidents [Another fact!] as we only code crane accidents that result in a fatality or catastrophe. [Why make what you do have so difficult to locate? It doesn't have to be mingled in with everything else.] If you become aware of the name of an establishment where OSHA has conducted an investigation involving a crane, you can locate the information at this site. [Yea, like I'm supposed to know there was an accident on June 3, 1999 in a particular city, the name of the contractor, etc... Come on Mr. Jeffress, get real.] For specific additional information on any particular construction inspection, please address your request to:
Mr. Michael Lee, OMDS
OSHA, Room N3660
200 Constitution Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20210
[Sir, this is 1999, we have the Internet and you have the information. Put it on your Website. Most of us don't have time to write Mr. Lee and possibly have to wait several weeks for a reply. If you can't do that, then supply the information to me under the Freedom of Information Act. I'll have it on CraneAccidents.com within a matter of a few hours after I receive it.] You also asked that OSHA add a link to your site on our web site. The Directorate of Construction has contacted the OSHA WebMaster to request that a link be established to your site. [Well, it has been more than a month and there was no link when I looked on 7/7/99. Folks, it only takes five minutes or less to create a link. Checked again on 8/23/99, again on 10/01/99 and still no link.] Folks this is self-serving government of 1999. "We The People" are not important enough to matter.
Mr. Michael Lee, OMDS
OSHA, Room N3660
200 Constitution Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20210
[Sir, this is 1999, we have the Internet and you have the information. Put it on your Website. Most of us don't have time to write Mr. Lee and possibly have to wait several weeks for a reply. If you can't do that, then supply the information to me under the Freedom of Information Act. I'll have it on CraneAccidents.com within a matter of a few hours after I receive it.] You also asked that OSHA add a link to your site on our web site. The Directorate of Construction has contacted the OSHA WebMaster to request that a link be established to your site. [Well, it has been more than a month and there was no link when I looked on 7/7/99. Folks, it only takes five minutes or less to create a link. Checked again on 8/23/99, again on 10/01/99 and still no link.] Folks this is self-serving government of 1999. "We The People" are not important enough to matter.
Thank you for your interest in occupational safety and health.
Charles N. Jeffress
Assistant Secretary
[As per a couple of phone conversations with some OSHA people, I was led to believe CraneAccidents.com would have the support of OSHA. I was encouraged by the same two employees to write to Mr. Jeffress. Evidently, I wasted my time and that of Mr. Jeffress.]
May 7, 2000: Giving credit when credit is due. O.S.H.A. has made significant improvements to their Web site. It is now much easier to navigate and it now contains lots of useful information.