13.12.2014

Truck mount overturns - UPDATED

Reports are coming in that a 34 metre truck mounted lift on an 18 tonne chassis has overturned in the town of Dawlish in South West UK.
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The unit was working on a small residential block

One of the men in the platform was taken to hospital with serious leg injuries, but his injuries are not considered to be in life threatening. The platform is owned by T J. Smith Contracting, a local painting contractor. The overturn is certainly associated with an outrigger issue - two of the beams were either not extended, or they have punched through the tarmac into a void.
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The platform appears to have overturned due to an outrigger issue

At this stage this is all the information that we have, and so will update this item as and when we receive further news.

UPDATE

The injured man, Kenneth Leach, 49, has now died from complications associated with injuries to his leg. The man took a turn for the worst after hospital staff had considered that a risk of fatality had passed and died from a cardiac arrest.

More recent photos taken at the scene, appear to confirm that the outrigger set up played a role in this tragic incident. However it now seems that the machine had been reported to have had a fault with its safety systems, in particular the switching that prevents the machine from slewing over retracted outriggers. The fault was picked up on a routine Loller inspection and supposedly fixed.