HOUSTON -- A crane is normally a sign or progress, an indication of economic growth. However, Friday's collapse of an industrial crane leaves only unanswered questions.

The massive crane that fell was operated by Deep South Crane and Rigging Company. Workers at its southwest Houston office shut the door on 11 News when reporters tried to talk to them about the fatal collapse.

While investigators are trying to figure out what caused the 300-foot crane to come crashing down, 11 News looked into the company's safety record.

In April of 2007, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited Deep South Crane and Rigging Company for four separate violations and fined the company $9,000.

Those violations stem from a small crane accident that killed a Houston man. His family is suing Deep South for 3.5 million.

That's the only history of violations on record with OSHA, but a California congressman told 11 News that he isn't surprised.

“The labor committee has an open investigation into construction safety,” said U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-California), who chairs the committee, "(The focus is) specifically into the respect of crane accidents.”

Miller said current crane regulations are too weak and haven't been updated since 1971.

The law requires annual inspections, but most never happen. Actually, OSHA only inspected 23,000 of the country's estimated four million job sites last year.

“It's really a failure of the Department of Labor and Occupational Safety and Health Administration in terms of its obligations to keep workers safe,” said Miller.

In Texas, cranes are only inspected when there is an accident or complaint, OSHA told 11 News.

Experts said the last and only time there was a crash of a crane like the one that collapsed in Houston on Friday, was in Milwaukee in 1999.

The high-load crane crashed while building Miller Field, the ballpark for the Brewers baseball team. Something clearly went wrong then – and now.

It's a dangerous business and we all know that,” said crane operator Mike Loesch, who drove to the refinery on Friday after hearing about the accident. “You just feel bad anytime your friends go.”

Loesch said the problem isn't that there is not enough regulation.

“The industry is too regulated too much in my opinion,” he said. “These cranes have a super lift and those trays are designed to be floated so they can be swinged with that counterweight on it.

“The industry won't let you do that anymore because they don't want you picking up over 75 or 85 percent of the tray's capacity, which means they load that tray down with more counterweight than what it has to have.

“Which puts backward stability on the cranes.”

While cranes are required to be inspected yearly, one local expert said operators are on an honor system to make sure it happens.

At least one Houston City Council member is also pushing for the city to conduct regular crane inspections.