26.07.2012

Using an aerial lift as a crane proves fatal

A man was killed this week after falling from the platform of an aerial lift as it attempted to lift a tree in Garrett, Indiana on Wednesday.

The man, Paul Graber, 56, is the owner of Auburn Tree Service and was working alongside Holiday Lakes to the south of Garrett. Graber and his employees were using a logging chain to connect the underside of the platform to a tree that had fallen into the lake in an attempt to recover it by using the lift as a crane.

We understand that the excess weight caused a catastrophic failure of the platform connection, dropping Graber to the ground. According to the DeKalb County coroner he died instantly from major internal injuries resulting from the fall.

Vertikal Comment

This is another tragic example of taking a shortcut and in this case not getting away with it. Graber has a very large family all of whom will now be grieving the loss. Lifting trees is a highly risky proposition at the best of times. Lifting items from the water can also be fraught with additional risks. Do this with a platform whose safe working load was already taken up with the man in the platform and the logging chain………

This is a tragic waste of life. Hopefully this example will help stop others who routinely use an aerial lift for unplanned lifts. Doing so is no different than Russian Roulette.

And consider this! Carrying out such an exercise may not result in an immediate structural failure. However it may well cause structural damage so that the next time a perfectly innocent person could be using the machine as intended and well within its safe working envelope – only for it to finally fracture send that person to their death. All for the sake of a short cut or cost-saving stunt.