03.07.2012

Overloading strands three

Three men were stranded in a truck mounted lift on Monday evening in Southend, UK, due to an overload cut out.

The three went up in a 32 metre CTE B Lift 320 which has a maximum capacity of 280kg, as well as a close-in working envelope for use in narrow jacking configuration. As such it has an automatic position and overload sensing system.

The three managed to get the platform off the ground, into the air with posters on board which they were due to place onto the façade of a building.

At a height of around 15 metres or so and with the retracted boom and jib at full elevation, the load in the platform tripped the overload sensors.

Given the position they were in, the operator was unable to do anything to lower the lift, as every move that would have lowered them would also have created a greater load moment.
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Firemen remove some of the excess weight from the stranded platform

By this time it was pouring with rain and the three had not considered any rescue plan.

It took them an hour and a half to raise the alarm, and the local fire department was called out, arriving soon after with its Bronto rescue platform.

The crew extracted an occupant and the machine was able to function normally – two men eventually took the fire platform down while the other stowed his own machine.

Vertikal Comment

Why it needed three men to install posters is a bit of a mystery - perhaps it was two to work and one to operate? While 280kg is more generous than many smaller lifts, some of which have 200 or 225kg platform capacity – it is not really enough for three men and their kit. 80kg is becoming an average weight for a western man. Add in PPE kit and a harness and you are already very close indeed to the 280kg maxium cpacity and that's before you take the posters or any tools into consideration!

If one of the three is a tad tubby you can easily be looking at 300kg plus, they were unfortunate in that they were able to raise the platform before the overload sensor kicked in.

Hopefully this will send a warning to others to watch their platform capacities or to consider a rescue plan before taking off. It also raises the question as to how realistic the 80kg per person platform capacity guide is in these more obese days.