30.03.2011

Lucky escape for operator

A man operating a telescopic boom lift had a lucky escape after touching high voltage power lines in Antwerp Belgium.

The incident occurred at the Antwerp branch of Dutch based rental company Gunco yesterday. A 35 year old employee took the boom too close to the 380,000 volt power lines causing sparking between the platform and the power lines.
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The rescue goes ahead

The man and his colleagues then performed a text book recovery in that no one did anything until the power was disconnected, the man was then rescued by another boom lift. The entire rescue took just an hour.

The net result was that the man in the platform escaped totally unharmed and any damage was limited to the boom lifts systems. The emergency services were called and an ambulance stood by but was not required.
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The incident occured at Gunco's operation in Antwerp, Belgium

Vertikal Comment

All too often the damage from touching or coming close to touching high tension power lines with a platform or crane, is done after the accident has occurred. For example a crane operator who has touched overhead power lines with the crane’s boom is usually safe – if it is rubber tyred – as long as he stays in the cab. The moment he exits the cab and touches the ground he becomes a conductor to earth and it’s all over.

In this situation if the men on the ground had moved too close to the machine in order to try and bring their colleague down – their bodies would have acted as an electrical conductors most likely ending in a fatality or serious injury.