19.12.2011

Death Wish Kiev

A photo sent to us by a Dutch reader from the Ukraine, shows the planned misuse of a boom lift.

Taken this summer the photos show two men using a boom lift to work on the construction of the Olympisky National sports complex in Kiev. All looks very good – the men are wearing harnesses with lanyards and both have hardhats.

However the presence of planks resting on the mid guardrail is cause for concern, and unlikely to be there purely as seats.
Please register to see all images

All looks fairly good in this scene, but those planks look a little suspicious

When we look at the second photo, sure enough one of the men uses the plank to obtain extra height and has reattached his lanyard onto the top guardrail.

The fact is he could so easily slip and fall overboard. If he did it looks as though there is enough slack in the lanyard to exert a high dynamic loading on the guardrail, and the lift. If this had happened his colleague might have hoped that the guardrail would have given way, rather than the full load applied to the lift and platform.

One assumes that the plaform was fully extended, thus the plan to use the extra step to reach.
Please register to see all images

Sure enough the one man uses the plank to obtain a little more height, one assumes that the lift is fully extended? And puts himself and his colleague in danger

The stadium is the premier sports venue of Ukraine and one of the world's largest, designed to host Olympic games it was opened in October, and will be used for the Euro 2012 final.