18.06.2013

Forget the traffic

Readers in the UK have sent in two examples of poor traffic and pedestrian management while using boom lifts, along with men climbing in and out of the platform, both taken within the past week or so.

The first and milder example of the two, was spotted in a busy street in Bury St Edmunds last week. Two men using an articulated boom, had clearly taken steps to prevent pedestrians from passing underneath the boom, but made no arrangements for them to get around the obstacle without crossing the road. So marks scored for keeping people out from under the work area, but then according to our reader the two, who had rented the platform a local supplier, proceeded to drive the self-propelled machine off down the public highway!
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Spotted in a busy street in Bury St Edmunds

In the words of our reader: “A Death Wish or just stupid? Pedestrians were forced out onto the road and what I didn’t capture was the guy on the roof climbing into the basket before they drove off down the road!”

The second picture is of a boom lift being used to work on a restaurant in Hull which is partially blocking the pavement/sidewalk as well as the road. The incident is best described by our reader/eye witness who said:

“These two guys have no common sense whatsoever. I firstly noticed this when a car swerved to miss the access platform’s wheels sticking out into the main road, without any warning signs or cones in place. I then noticed that the two guys working in the machine had squeezed it in between two parked cars by placing the two front wheels onto the curb leaving the rear wheels exposed to the road, opposite this but not in the image was a parked lorry turning the road into a single lane.”
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The boom lift being used to work on a restaurant in Hull

“These guys had then exited the unit onto a roof and left the machine unattended, when they did eventually get back into the basket one of them was holding a piece of sheeting and the other was operating the machine, neither of them wearing a safety harness. Definitely worth the title Death Wish don’t you think!”

Agreed – two classic examples of poor traffic and pedestrian management. With the risk that both units could have been clipped by a passing vehicle, the wearing of a harness with short lanyard should have been a high priority. Certainly a couple of additions to the Death Wish series.