09.04.2013

Truck mount overturns in Germany

Two men were seriously injured in Müschenbach, to the south east of Cologne on Monday, while using a truck mounted lift for tree pruning.

The men were working at a height of around eight metres and had finished working on the side of the road where the lift was parked and slewed the boom around to work on the trees on the opposite side of the road. They had apparently extended the boom to its full outreach - said to be 16 metres - when the machine lost balance and overturned.

One man, aged 45 received life threatening injuries and was airlifted to hospital, the other, 42, was taken by ambulance to a local hospital.

Reports are sketchy, and we have not been sent any photographs, but early indications suggest that the machine, mounted on an 18 tonne truck, was short rigged on the side that it overturned, but this has not been confirmed yet.