06.10.2017
Chocks away!
Spotted by a reader in the UK an attempt to level a boom lift up on an incline using random wood offcuts.
Some care has been taken to make the best of a bad job, but it is still quite precarious and anyone remotely safety conscious would surely stop this from going any further. It breaks the first rule of planning safe work at height, select the right machine for the job! Boom lifts with levelling jacks are available, while spider lifts or truck mounts can also level up on slopes.
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How not to level a boom lift
One of the biggest risks here is that while elevated, the operator inadvertently operates the drive function – something that is a good deal easier than you might think. The lift would come off the blocks and the dynamic loading on top of the drop to off level might be sufficient to overturn it, particularly if the unit is operated with a fully retracted, fully elevated boom. Definitely one for our death wish series.
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The position of the cribbing looks a tad precarious
Have a safe weekend.
Snakes and Ladders
One has to ask what your comments would be if the machine was now scrap The operator dead.
Sadly the HSE would be all over the company involved like a rash.
The problem I have with this is they may have done this under instruction because cost would not allow scaffold or other access.
My comments were deliberate and find it worrying the support that human ingenuity gets especially if in the workplace.
AccessibL
It's terrible, innit? Actions such as this are happening countless upon countless times all over town - probably even all over the country. The UK. The continent. (For now). Jeez, even the world! And what happens? Nothing, Nothing but the job getting done. The job getting done and the satisfaction of someone using their wits to get around a difficult situation. Some of these Death Wish articles should be celebrations of human ingenuity. (Which I note the Editor always gives a fair point to, by the way). The comments can be ridiculous.
Snakes and Ladders
HSE should produce a banned list of companies and operators. This should not be happening at any level. They are too stupid to be anywhere near any machinery.