13.01.2008

Aerial lift fatality

A 26 year old man died on Friday at Fortescue Metals Cloud Break mine in the East Pilbara region of Western Australia, after he was crushed between the platform of the boom lift he was working in and overhead steel work.

The man was working as a rigger for the United Group which is currently contracted to carry out work at the mine.
Worksafe spokesman Nina Lyhne said: "Our primary concern is to find out what caused the incident and do whatever we can to make sure it doesn't happen in the future,"

"Our Inspector has been there and inspected the cherry picker that was involved in the incident and we are obviously going to be
pursuing that further."

Vertikal Comment

Information on this accident is still scanty but it will be of interest to a number of users who have expressed concern over the effectiveness of dead-man controls on some booms in such a situation.

While the number of crushing incidents such as this are far and few between, it has been argued that they could be eliminated with some design changes. However no one has been able to determine which type of dead-man controls are safer or more dangerous.

Dead man options include a trigger on the joystick, separate two handed controls or a foot pedal. Foot Pedals were almost obsoleted some years back when operators would jam them closed, but new timed electrics now prevent this. Some lifts amazingly do not use incorporate a dead-man function at all.

Others argue that the solution involves protecting the controls from the operator being pressed against them with some form or cover or grille.

Hopefully the details of this sad accident will be made available in order to help add information and further this debate.