A. No person shall operate a crane in construction, demolition or excavation work unless the person is licensed under the Crane Operators Safety Act or exempt pursuant to Subsection D of this section.

B. Operating a crane without a license shall be considered unlicensed operation and shall subject the person who is operating the crane and the person's employer, or the employer's representative, to penalties as provided in the Crane Operators Safety Act.

C. The licensee and the licensee's employer shall be subject to applicable regulations controlling the use and operation of cranes as promulgated by the occupational safety and health administration, the mine safety and health administration or the American national standards institute.

D. The Crane Operators Safety Act shall not apply to the operation of a crane used in construction, demolition or excavation associated with:

(1) natural gas gather lines;

(2) interstate transmission facilities and interstate natural gas facilities subject to the federal Natural Gas Pipeline Safety Act of 1968 and its amendments;

(3) interstate pipeline facilities and carbon dioxide pipeline facilities subject to the federal Hazardous Liquid Pipeline Safety Act of 1979;

(4) gas and oil pipeline facilities subject to the Pipeline Safety Act [70-3-11 to 70-3-20 NMSA 1978];

(5) mining, milling or smelting operations subject to mine safety and health administration regulations or occupational safety and health administration regulations;

(6) prefabricated control rooms of natural gas, oil or carbon dioxide pipeline transmission facilities;

(7) oil and gas exploration, production or drilling;

(8) rural electric cooperative and electric, gas and water utility operations;

(9) commercial sign operations;

(10) the construction or operation of railroads;

(11) the installation and maintenance of telephone or television cable; or

(12) the installation and maintenance of propane tanks.

History: Laws 1993, ch. 183, § 4; 1995, ch. 138, § 3; 2005, ch. 52, § 1; 2013, ch. 76, § 1; 2017, ch. 31, § 4.

The 2017 amendment, effective June 16, 2017, provided certain exemptions from the Crane Operators Safety Act; in the catchline, deleted "exemption" and added "exemptions"; replaced "hoisting" or "hoisting equipment" with "crane" throughout the section; in Subsection A, after "excavation work", deleted "when the hoisting equipment is used to hoist or lower individuals or material", after "Safety Act or", deleted "the operation is", and after "pursuant to", deleted "Subsection M of Section 60-15-3 NMSA 1978" and added "Subsection D of this section"; in Subsection B, after, "employer's representative", deleted "that allows a person not licensed under the Hoisting Operators Safety Act to operate hoisting equipment", after "to", deleted "the", and after "as provided in", deleted "that act" and added "the Crane Operators Safety Act"; and added Subsection D.

The 2013 amendment, effective July 1, 2013, prohibited a person from operating hoisting equipment without a license; in the title, added "exemption"; in Subsection A, after "Hoisting Operators Safety Act or" added "the operation"; in Subsection B, deleted the former language which permitted a person who completed in-house training to operate hoisting equipment for a period of one year without a license and added the current language of the subsection; and in Subsection C, at the beginning of the sentence, deleted "operator's" and added "licensee and the licensee's".

The 2005 amendment, effective July 1, 2006, provided that a person who completes an approved in-house training course may operate hoisting equipment for one year and that after the one year period, the person must obtain a license as provided in Section 60-17-7 NMSA 1978, with the exception that the requirement for passing a written examination is waived.

The 1995 amendment, effective July 1, 1995, in the first sentence, substituted "industry recognized" for "industrial", inserted "based on American national standards institute standards", and substituted "hoisting operators" for "hoist operators".