24.05.2012

Two charged with negligent homicide

The owner of a trailer lift and the engineer who inspected it have been charged with Negligent Homicide in Norway

The owner of a trailer lift and the engineer who inspected it have been charged with Negligent Homicide in Norway, following a 2010 fatality.

The incident occurred in September 2010 in the town of Enebakk, when a man aged 60 rented a telescopic trailer mounted lift to carry out inspection work to antennae on the church roof.

The lift, of 1999 vintage had received its annual inspection some nine months earlier in January. The engineer that carried out that work, has been charged with failing to notice severe corrosion around the back of the chassis and the rear outrigger brackets.

We understand that by September the problem was causing the outrigger interlock switches to go off, and the owner, a local man, is accused of having ignored or overridden one or more of them to solve the problem, rather than shutting the unit down and having it checked out.

The problem then manifested itself while the 60 year-old man inspecting the antennas at a height of around 11 metres. The frame around the outriggers gave way and he fell to the ground. He died the following day from his injuries.