22.08.2010

Van mounted hedge trimming

A reader from the UK has sent us a photo for our Death Wish series which brings a new meaning to the term van mounted platform.

The photograph was taken in Cannock Staffordshire, where two young men had been given the job to trim a homeowner’s very high conifer hedge.

They set to work on the task in hand and given that it was raining quite hard and they wanted to get the job done quickly, they looked at what they considered to be the fastest form of access. They clearly only considered the equipment they had with them, clearly no planning of the work at height had been carried out.
Please register to see all images

A mobile van mounted platfrom, but not one that meets any safety requiements

So they drove their van up on to the grass verge, or rather one side of the van, and one of the two climbed up on the roof with his pole mounted hedge trimmer. Given that he is still too low to do the job properly and that the van’s roof would have been wet and therefore slippery, he was already putting himself at considerable risk of injury- if not worse.

However, according to our correspondent the second man was behind the wheel of the van and was driving it alongside the hedge while the trimmer did his work, thereby multiplying the risk of a fall substantially.

The two had a set of ladders on board which they could have used for the job, although given the height of the hedge and the job to be done something more suitable would have been preferable.