26.09.2017

Trapped for hours

Two men were stuck in the platform of their 150ft telescopic boom lift last night while working on the St Francis Hospital in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

The two were apparently working on an large LED sign at a height of almost 40 metres when the JLG boom “developed a technical fault” This may well include running out of fuel of course. It seems that no one was able to use the machine’s emergency descent system, so a call was made to the emergency services which arrived with a fire rescue ladder.
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Stranded in the wet and cold until well gone 10:00pm

However it was decided to bring another boom lift working elsewhere on site around to rescue the two, it took some time though and was round two metres short, but a ladder was used to transfer the men one by one from the stranded machine. In total they were stranded for over four hours.
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A slightly small boom lift comes to the rescue

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A ladder is employed to facilitate the transfer

Vertikal Comment

There may have been good reason why the emergency descent system was not used in this case, but all too often it is down to a lack of knowledge by those using the platform and those below. Thankfully on this occasion it just meant that the two were wet and chilled, given the cool temperatures and rain.

A key part of any training programme is the importance of knowing what to do if the platform breaks down or runs out of fuel etc.. And yet I would venture a guess – based on nothing at all apart from gut feel - that the majority of users have no idea of what to do. How we change that is anyone’s guess.