25.08.2017

Serious telehandler fall

A man is fighting for his life while his son is badly injured, after they fell from the forks of a telehandler, while painting the outside of their farmhouse yesterday in Cangort near Shinrone, Co Offaly, Ireland.

The man, 47, a teacher, was airlifted to hospital in Dublin, and is said to be in critical condition. His son, 11, was taken to a local hospital and is in a stable condition with non-life threatening injuries. Health and Safety inspectors were said to be at the scene this morning, but at this point we do not have any further information.

Vertikal Comment

We receive dozens of examples of people working from a pallet or box on the forks of a telehandler and usually they get away with it. But all to often the Death Wish turns into a death. There have been two major incidents that we know of in the past seven days, with three men working from a box on a telehandler in Washington DC very seriously injured when it slipped off the forks, last week and now this tragic case just before the schools go back.

The word needs to be spread more widely regarding the dangers of this form of working at height.