08.06.2015

Fatal outrigger strike

A loader crane outrigger which extended while the truck it was on drove through a residential area struck and killed a pedestrian in Altrincham, near Manchester, England on Thursday.

The truck, a two axle flat-bed owned by Liverpool-based Blok N Mesh was carrying pedestrian barriers when one of its manually extended outrigger beams extended, without the operator noticing it. It is believed to have clipped a traffic light and then struck the woman, 29, in the back as it passed her, before catching a car and then stopping.
She had been walking on the pavement/sidewalk and would have probably been unaware of the danger before she was hit, she suffered serious head injuries and died at the scene.
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The outrigger worked its way out as the truck travelled on the road

The driver stopped after hitting the car and ripping its bumper off, having been totally unaware of the first two incidents. Thinking it was a bad traffic accident it soon became clear that it was a good deal worse than that.

Trevor Payne, a drector at Blok N Mesh made a statement which said: 'Following the incident our company would like to pass on our sincerest condolences to the family of the lady who sadly lost her life in this tragic incident. We can confirm that we are aware of the incident that took place and that the police are currently carrying out their investigation into the circumstances. We are assisting them fully with their investigations.”
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The driver became aware of the problem after pulling a bumper off of a car

Vertikal Comment

This incident is more tragic than many, in that the person killed was totally innocent – not working on a construction site or with dangerous equipment. Sadly it looks as though the outrigger is a manually extended beam type, which needs to have a travel pin installed and retained to prevent an incident such as this. Something has clearly gone wrong with that.

Hopefully the industry and the safety authorities report quickly on this and issue a reminder for owners of such cranes to learn from what occurred and take steps to ensure that such an avoidable incident does not happen again.