01.11.2007

Outriggers again

A man was killed yesterday afternoon at the Bergen County Utilities Authority wastewater treatment plant. In Little Ferry, New Jersey, USA. After a mobile crane fell on him.

Ruby Thomas, 38, worked for Tomar Construction of Metuchen, was pronounced dead at the scene according to Bergen County police. A second crane had to be called in to lift the fallen crane in order to recover Thomas' body.

Workers were using the crane to hoist pumps and other equipment out of tanks at the plant, said Leonard R. Kaiser, executive director of the utilities authority. Thomas was working as a slinger/signaler.

Kaiser is also reported as confirming that the accident occurred when one of the cranes outriggers broke through the tarmac surface on which the operator had set the crane up on.

Vertikal Comment

The number of accidents caused by the failure to deploy or properly set up outriggers is an utter disgrace. The correct setting of outriggers is one of the most basic and important skills for a crane/truck mounted lift operator.

Outrigger incidents easily make up the majority of the accidents with cranes and those lifts that are fitted with them.
Yet this type of accident is so easily avoided and an operator who has no feel for setting outriggers up should never be let in the cab or the basket of such a machine.

In fact the training of an operator should start with mastering the proper set up of the machines outriggers, with no one being allowed into the cab until they have fully mastered it.
A tougher stance on this could easily cut crane accidents in half.