13.11.2012

Crane to the rescue

An injured man was recovered by tower crane yesterday reportedly following the overturn of a work platform.

The incident occurred at the Frankley Waterworks near Birmingham in the UK, as two men were about to start pouring concrete for a new water tank. Unconfirmed reports then claim that the aerial lift they were using overturned. A man in his 40s, was treated for a minor head injury while the other, in his 50s, suffered leg and back pain.
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The stretcher is lifted out to the waiting ambulance

His location caused the ambulance crew to struggle for options to remove him while strapped to a special stretcher. Eventually they decided to employ the site’s tower crane which lifted the stretcher and a member of the Hazardous Area Response Team from the accident location out to the waiting ambulance. Both men were then taken to a local Hospital.
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A member of the rescue team rode with the stretcher

While we have received numerous photos of the crane and the stretcher the details of what overturned remains completely unconfirmed.

UPDATE

We have now seen a photograph with an overturned scissor lift in the background, thus appearing to confirm that the two were in fact using an aerial lift at the time.
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The overturned scissor lift

Scissors usually only go over in extreme wind, side slopes or... driving off a kerb/into a pothole we have no idea - at this stage - what caused this one to overturn.