06.04.2017
Surrey climber
Spotted last week in Surrey, UK, a man standing on the control box and top rail of a boom lift platform to reach bolt holes.
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Rather than raise the jib and telescope this man decided it was better to climb
He was at least wearing a harness, although the lanyard was way too long for what he was supposed to be doing.
In the words of our correspondent: “Whilst I was collecting a parcel from the royal mail depot in Egham, Surrey, at a new industrial park being built last week. I noticed that there was a very careless operator using a HA16PX boom lift to secure a beam, but instead of just raising the jib to reach the bolts, he proceeded to stand on the handrail and control box, and clamber over the steel work to do the bolts up...this carried on for a good few minutes even allowing me to get closer to take these pictures and to my astonishment, the crane driver and another worker stood there looking at him whilst he carried on, on the plus side he was at least harnessed in to the machine. 100 % Death wish and ignorance.”
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The rest of the installation crew watched as the man did it work in this manner
Amazing how invincible some people think they are when wearing the Personal Protection Equipment! No question about it one for our Death Wish series.
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A closer look
Post Script
After this story appeared we had some frantic calls from Metro Deconstruction whose signs were still on the fence. It seems that the company was reposnsible for demolishing the old building and had completed the work some time ago. BUT when the company moved off site it overlooked the removal of its signs from the Heras fence panels apologising to the public for the inconvenience of the demolition work.
Since then the new build contractors moved on site and it is their staff, or subcontractors who were captured in the photographs taken by our corespondent. We have been very impressed indeed with the attitude, safety culture and concern at Metro Deconstruction, and as you can see we have removed the company's name from the fence. In the meantime the company promptly went round to the site and removed the actual signs themselves.
We sadly do not know the name of the new build contractor, but hopefully it has seen this story and taken any required action. It would also be nice to think that the photographer also reported the incident to the site manager at the time. But given past experience from some of our correspondents he have faced threats of harm, when they have tried to do this - he may well have decided not to.
BarryR
Sir.
As the Health and Safety Manager for Metro Deconstruction I am concerned that you have used photographs displaying our company logo without clearing this with us first.
As a company, Metro Deconstruction was the contractor who demolished this site last year. Any works since the end of last year have no connection to Metro Deconstruction in any way what so ever.
Additionally as a safety practitioner if I had been in the position to see such a blatant unsafe act I would have approached the site and raised the issue immediately with the site manager to stop this works and remove the operator to a point of safety where he could have been informed of his error and re-educated in the correct operating procedures.
If you or any of your readers would like to visit one of our live sites I will be happy to show you our operations and the safety performance of our team.