Just happened. Stay from those manhole covers! I always tell my guys that, now I see that it is absolutely necessary.
That’s scary as hell!! :eek:
word!
Man, my stomach kinda felt funny and I just saw the photo! I HATE THOSE THINGS! He probably knew he was going down and moved the arm around so he didnt hit the building! Suprised he is alive!
He is lucky to be alive! Anyone using one of these knows you cannot move them around safely while the boom is extended. The center of gravity changes and any uneven surface and bump is a potential disaster waiting to happen. I know many of us DO move them around with no accidents, but had he lowered his boom, he would have seen what he was driving over a bit better and possibly could have drove around the manhole cover
Interesting that witnesses stated it took a long time for the thing to fall. As normal most of these accidents are human error. I have used lifts before, in fact just got off a 65 a couple of weeks ago. The things have alarms on them where as they will not work if they are not leveled safey or if they are past the incline safety mark. If that boom was still operational for a period of time I don’t understand why the guy did not just stop the thing and lower the boom. Takes about 1 min for the thing to fully retract.
I hate the lifts also, infact I hate them so much I have hired a guy who was a professional glazer and used manlifts over the last 20 years. I figure it would be easier to hire someone who knows these things very well. Teaching how to clean the glass is easy. Teaching someone to have a set of balls while up on a lift is impossible. I love swinging those baskets left to right. Nothing like shaking a 50,000,00 lbs machine down to the ground. Gotta love it. Glad to see the guy is alive at least. Prob needs some new underwear though.
Stupidest life story to date:
I used to work at a machine shop some time ago. This new guy was using a lift to access some pipes overhead in the building. He was using a torch to cut the pipe out and replacing it with new stuff. The companies lift was sort of run down, but it still worked good. So the new guy booms out over a dumpster filled with cardboard, about six feet above it, fires up his torch and starts cutting away. For those of you that have used an oxy-acetylene torch on metal - you know how much they spark. It wasn’t long before the dumpster contents were ablaze, and the flames were melting the guys boots. He panicked and couldn’t start the lift to move, so there he sat, grilling over an open fire. Luckily, another worker saw this guy, grabbed a forklift, and moved the dumpster out from under him. Lucky bastard…
What are you going to do
This is why they say “you can’t fix stupid”!
