Council prosecuted after worker's near-death fall

[Pete Bannister]

Good thread. thanks for posting it.

Difflock has made a really important observation.

I like Dean's pragmatic 'bounce test' approach. Sounds like a good idea to me. Anyone else do that?

There are situations where a 'test' such at that cant be done; e.g. where you're using a boom to gain access over lower obstacles etc.

Earlier this year I was using a piece of kit like the one in Dean’s photo. We needed it moved onto an area with a void/basement beneath. Being aware of the very high pressures one foot can generate, I asked the question ‘what ‘s the maximum operational pressure one support can generate when the boom is at full extension’. The operator consulted the plaque on the machine. The info was there in daPa ( deca pascal): which was really helpful …Not! I had to sit down, find the calculator on my mobile phone, play around with 0’s a few times to make sure Id not made the oh- so -easy mistake of putting the decimal point in the wrong place. Anyway the outcome was OK a few factors and on the plus side, it sure made the plant operator think. Next time he was on site with us he’d built some nice beefy timber spreader plates about 1.5 long, designed to not deform under the max pressure from one leg. Down side was each plate weighed about 75kg…

Edited July 4, 2013 by Pete Bannister
english

[scotspine1]

Dean's right, not a huge amount of information available to make an properly informed judgement on the setup etc.

 

On the MEWP itself - looks like a Crewcab Nissan Cabstar with a 20-22m extending/articulating boom? anyone see anything different?

 

Only thing is when looking at the pic I'd expect to see the truck itself sitting higher off the ground due to the outriggers being at full extension? Would expect to see a bigger space between truck and ground.

 

Speaking from experience I don't like small truck mounted MEWPS ie Merc Sprinters, Cabstars, Canters etc.

[nailer]

Skyhuck's right... you can't beat a bit of climbing rope for tree work.

[difflock]

Photo as above would indicate ill-informed/inexperienced/careless/sloppy setting up to me.

As, (and I know I cannot really judge................but), the ground the MEWP was sited on looks solid enough, being a track, albeit unsurfaced, but presumably reasonably paved.

But as another poster remarked, unless some really blatent, and easily provable error or mistake was committed.

The Council will be held responsible.

Cos they are expected to be perfect.

And H & S hind-sight always has 20/20 vision.

Edited July 4, 2013 by difflock

[mike83]

cheers dean your a star... did the bounce test today, long n short. def gave a bit more confidence.. did each leg individual even tho it had a self leveller system then self levelled the lot when happy with what they were on. will find some pad like materials at the yard tomo.

 

id rather climb but its horses for courses init. feel for the dude but u lads are right bout observation etc. self preservation all the way.

but, then again he might have been in a similar boat as me, can rinse a tree but new to mewps. newly ticketed for mewp, shite training, flat carpark couple of slews across a roof. have taken it slow and drained what i can from the more experienced lads/boss.

theres always so muchmore knowledge needed bout each task than taught or shown at training and poxy colleges think cutting.

 

hope he can get up a tree again without dwellin on a horrible day.

[Philip Anderson]

From the photo it looks as if the front jack is visible,I know the H.S.E findings were that the jacks slipped off the pads but to me the configuration of the machine does not look right , you do not see many crew cab mewps normally on a single cab mewp the jacks are much further forward ,the ground conditions look o.k .Sprinter and Cabstar are fine as carrier chassis's that's all they are the devils in the detail ,the subframe,jacking system and controlled work parameters of the machines having owned and operated these type of machine doing tree work for over 17 years the latest one being 27 meter on a cabstar I feel they are safe but this doesn't help this poor worker who was injured I hope he recovers well.