13.04.2010

Fatal lift accident

A man died yesterday, in East Ayrshire, Scotland, after his self propelled boom lift tipped over causing him to fall around 15 metres into a stream.

The man said to be 47, a contract worker for Network Rail, was inspecting the underside of a railway viaduct at Stewarton, with the telescopic boom lift, rented from Loxam, when the accident occurred. He died at the scene.
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The fallen boom lift

An investigation into what happened is ongoing. A Network Rail spokesman said: "An engineering contractor has died following an accident on the road beneath Stewarton Viaduct. We are working with the police and our contractors to investigate the cause of the incident. Our thoughts are with the man's family at this time."

No further details are available at this time.

UPDATE: Sept 2014: We now know that the boom had been working on a levelled raised platform which had no end or side protection, allowing the raised boom to be inadvertently driven off the edge, resulting in the death of the operator Leslie Watson. His employer SW Global Resourcing was fined £200,000. See fatal boom overturn easily avoidable

Vertikal Comment

While it is a sensitive issue to comment on an accident when so few details are available, self propelled boom lifts do not just tip over like this.

Photos and video footage we have seen seen suggest that the ground on one side of the machine may have given way or subsided causing the lift to loose stability.

The machine itself looks to be a recent model, fully intact and well maintained.
We will upladate when we have more information.