10.07.2017

Just when you think you have seen it all!

Just when you think you have seen it all something comes along that shows that there is always someone more stupid out there.

This photo was sent to us from an Australian reader who says that it was from an event last week but did not say where it occurred. We think it looks as though it came from the USA …BUT are not at all sure.

A straight boom lift of some vintage - it looks like a larger Grove Manlift MZ model has one adult and three children in the platform. Given that the children are small that might be OK in terms of weight, however… hanging underneath the platform are two more people sitting on suspended bars which look like a homemade trapeze device. You might also point out that no one appears to be wearing a harness or lanyard in the platform – let’s not even mention the suspended people.
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Four in the platform and two dangling below

BUT that is not the worst of it.

The boom is actually loaded on what looks like a three axle trailer being pulled along by a dumper truck - possibly to travel more quickly than the boom can manage on its own? All this with the boom raised and slightly telescoped with a possible platform overload. And to cap it all, the procession appears to have just passed under some overhead cables. One hopes that they were aware of the distances or they were just telephone lines?

If as was extremely likely the boom had come off the trailer due to the sagging suspension the whole thing passed over a pot hole or side slope, the boom would have landed on dozens of young bystanders.
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If the trailer had dumped its cargo the boom would have also taken out a fair few bystanders

Perhaps this is an elaborate hoax? And it never really happened and this is just very clever picture manipulation? However that is almost certainly wishful thinking.

This has to come close to being one of the worst cases in our Death Wish series and goes to show that there are still thousands of people totally oblivious to what is safe and what is beyond risky. Plenty of work to do before the market becomes saturated.
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A closer look