23.01.2014

Fatal boom overturn

Two men died yesterday when the lift they were using to paint the outside of a prison building overturned.

The incident occurred at the Lower Buckeye jail near Phoenix, Arizona, the two men are reported to be employees of Riddell Painting and Coating. As is usual in these cases information is mixed, but we have confirmed that the lift was a Genie S-85 owned by Louisiana based H&E Equipment and that it was set up on sloping ground.
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Reports all say that the lift was set up on a slope

The boom was almost fully telescoped and had been raised to its maximum elevation when it tipped over backwards indicating that reports of it being on a slope of more than five degrees have some substance.

Prison inmates were the first to report the incident, saying that two men had jumped off the roof of the building, this suggests that neither were wearing a harness. Even if they had been, it is debatable if it would have made any difference in this case.
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The lift was almost fully extended

Vertikal Comment

Incidents like this should never happen, one of the most basic aspects of any training stress the importance of setting up aerial lifts on firm level ground, yet this is the second incident this week involving people operating on a slope - see: Boom fails trimming trees.