13.10.2008

Lack of harness takes a life

A 27 year old man was catapulted to his death in on Friday after his aerial lift snagged on a cable between Völklingen and Luisenthal in the Saarland region of Germany.

The man was the operator of a Ruthmann truck mounted lift owned by rental company Nieser of Saarbrucken. The lift was working around 14 metre up, alongside the B51 road, on the second day of a job to clear overgrown foliage.

While working with strimmers to clear the undergrowth, the platform became caught up on a steel cable in the wall.

Investigators believe that the operator tried to free the lift by booming up. The pressure on the boom built up and the platform suddenly broke free, shooting three or four metres into the air catapulting the operator to his death.

He was not wearing a harness, although he was wearing a helmet which did not prevent him dying from head injuries.
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The lift after the accident it was perfectly stable and intact

The man had been working with an employee of Saar forestry, it seems from the reports that the other man was not injured. He either remained in the platform, possibly due to wearing a harness? Or had climbed out while the operator tried to free the machine.

Vertikal Comment

While this is an unusual accident, the effect on the platform was no different from that caused when a lift is clipped by a passing truck or when the wheels of an extended self propelled drops off a kerb or into a depression.

At the end of the day it goes to show how a catapult effect can be caused by a wide range of hazards, and how even an experienced man can get caught out. Thus the importance of wearing a harness and short lanyard in a boom lift.

If this 27 year old had been harnessed in, there is no doubt that he would still be alive today.