25.02.2009

Death Wish?

One of our readers spotted the man below on a site in Teeside, UK, yesterday driving the boom lift with a large diameter five to six metre long pipe balanced on the guardrails of the platform.
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Look at the mans arms as he struggles to operate the machine

Note the challenges he faces to hold the pipe and operate the controls, one wonders what might have happened had he struck something with the pipe? The odd thing is that aside from the pipe he is fully kitted out, with harness, Hi-Viz jacket and hard hat.

There are devices on the market for supporting and retaining such loads in an aerial lift, but the make-do culture has clearly taken over on this site.
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He has a harness, he has the jacket and he has his hat but when it comes to handling pipes!

Follow up Note

Rental company Hewden, having seen this report, asked us if we would stress the fact that the person using this lift is not in any way connected with it merely someone using one of its lifts and that it maintains and expects the highest safety standards from all of its employees, while deploring misuse.


We are happy to do so,