26.04.2013
A cherry picker or forks and platform?
Yesterday morning an item in the local Leicestershire news stated that two men had been seriously injured after falling from a ‘cherry picker’ in Wigston near Leicester in the UK.
We did a little investigation work and failed to find any hard facts about the incident, even from people in the area. This morning the BBC put out a brief report saying the same thing as the local papers – that two men had fallen from a cherry picker and been airlifted to hospital.
Unusually we received no further information from our readers until this morning when we received calls and emails regarding the BBC article.
We now know what happened...
The incident occurred in Great Glen – near Oadby near Wigston near Leicester – on what is supposedly the first all solar powered house in the UK. Two employees of building company Caplin Homes, including Jason Caplin 31, and a 52 year old colleague, had been lifted in a platform attached to the forks of a telehandler, to a height of around four metres (earlier articles suggested six metres) in order to take photographs of the work.
The platform which had not been properly fitted or secured became detached from the forks dropping the two men to the ground. They were then airlifted to hospital with broken bones and other injuries, but both are expected to make a full recovery and be back at within a couple of months or so.
The Health and Safety Executive has launched an investigation and work on The Solar House project has been suspended.
Vertikal Comment
A classic case of incorrect information had us all concerned that two men had injured themselves while using the correct equipment for the job.
Typically this was not the case and is another example of a Death Wish turning into an injury, thankfully this time not a fatal one.
tom_wain90
Coming from a farming background I think your comment is a backwards step in safety. You may laugh the agricultural HSE track record; but, I think a man-riding basket is a massive improvement compared to activities in a recent vertikal article [[link:http://www.vertikal.net/en/news/story/17196/]] www.vertikal.net/en/news/story/17196/ [[link]] However I would suggest there needs to be some kind of minimum requirement training for the telehandler operator in regards to lifting personnel and communication between operator and basket. The personnel in the basket should have their 3b Ipaf category to ensure they know how to behave whilst in the basket. The basket and machine should be checked every 6 months anyway if they are lifting people.
jim-longstaff
Man-riding baskets for Forklifts or Telehandlers should be banned and their manufacture & sale should be outlawed as there is a perfectly acceptable/proven alternative in MEWPS.