03.12.2008

Lift fatality at SwanHunters

A man has died after being thrown out of a boom lift while demolishing a building yesterday at the SwanHunter ship yard in Wallsend, Sunderland, UK.

The man Kenneth Joyce, 55, was reported to have been thrown clear of the lift he was working from after a falling beam struck the platform causing it to throw him to the ground. The emergency services arrived and declared his death in the ambulance on site.

No information is available regarding the nature of the accident, whether he was wearing a harness or if it might have helped.

Vertikal Comment

There have been a few such accidents this year, either during the erection of a steel building or the demolition. In some (most) cases the falling beam has struck the platform creating a catapult effect, in which case a harness would have helped save the occupants, as it would if the impact had caused a structural failure of the platform leveling system.

In another case a bean landed on the person concerned and a harness would not have helped a great deal. We do not know which of the two this was, although local information suggests the former.

Great care needs to be taken when working in such applications and ideally the boom lift platform should never be positioned under any loose beam at any time.