13.11.2015

I’ve got that sinking feeling

A bucket truck overturned in Dewey, Oklahoma yesterday, while installing Christmas lights on the Historic Dewey Hotel, now a museum.
Please register to see all images

The bucket truck overturned as the stabilisers sunk

The bucket truck belongs to the City of Dewey, two men, presumably City employees, had sent the lift up on the grass with no attempt to use a mat under the small stabiliser feet. As they extended the machines reach along the front of the hotel the stabilisers began to sink into the ground causing the machine to start listing.
Please register to see all images

No attempt was made to spread the load

The men apparently attempted to take evasive action – one assumes that this meant bring the platform closer to the machine, but perhaps they lowered the boom, which would have made it worse, whatever they did their efforts actually caused the lift to overturn completely, throwing them out of the buckets onto the grass. Fortunately they were not seriously injured, but were taken to hospital for a check. The hotel building only received minor damage.

A wrecker truck was brought in to pull the bucket truck back onto its wheels, when one hopes it was taken away for a thorough check over. In the meantime it sounds like the City of Dewey could do with some operator training and a decent set of outrigger mats.
Please register to see all images

A wrecker truck was called in to pull the machine back on its wheels

Please register to see all images

Up she comes