21.06.2016
Crane hits boom lift
A boom truck overturned in Oxnard, California yesterday striking a truck mounted aerial work platform, seriously injuring its occupant.
The crane was lifting a power pole into the backyard of a house when it appears to have over reached itself and overturned. The crane’s boom then struck the upper boom of the aerial lift, fortunately the man working from the platform was harnessed in and remained in the platform which remained elevated and intact, however he did suffer a serious head injury from the impact of the crane boom and was rushed to hospital where he was said to be in a serious, but stable condition.
Cal/OSHA arrived at the scene, shortly after it was reported, in order to carry out an investigation.
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The overturned boom truck and the damaged truck mounted aerial work platform
Red
It's very easy to overide the crane's radius and other function limiters. Press one or two buttons, the computer/LMI goes into rigging/travel mode, and the crane will do whatever the operator wants it to do.
Peter Wellspring
How hard (or easy) is it for a crane operator to override the radius of the crane? I am in the EWP industry not cranes.
Is it automatically controlled, or does the operator have to remember what load he has on and how far out he is?
I know on the modern truck mount ewp's there is no way to overreach the radius during operation. You can understand when ground gives way or there was a mechanical failure, but I would not like to think that an operator can get a few extra meters just by pushing a button.
Red
I hope Cal/OSHA can ascertain boom length, boom angle and determine from the load chart if the operator was within radius, or out of radius. If he was the latter, they should throw the book at him.