05.09.2006

Death and destruction

An email we received yesterday hit a nerve with us, commenting on the number of deaths in the crane and access industry in recent weeks. it read as follows:

Mr Hang Over
of Finland
Telephone number 66666666,

"Dear sir,
man in his 40’s died yesterday when he was looking at all this dead people at vertikal.net. The 45-year-old man, a Printmedia employee, was watching the screen when the heart attack , tipping him out of the platform (office seat), he fell almost 70 cm to his death.
He was not wearing a harness

The Health and Safety Executive is investigating the incident"

While amusing, it does address the serious issue that in the past weeks we seem to have seen a large number of fatal accidents which is starting to concern us.

Modern cranes and access platforms are incredibly safe, with powered access equipment saving hundreds of lives a year and helping to dramatically reduce the number of falls from height.

However stupidity and ignorance on the part of a few people still causes too many accidents. We know that when such accidents occur, many of our regular readers on hearing of an incident look to Vertikal.Net to publish the facts and to clarify the situation.

We also feel that by highlighting the risks and what can happen when people do not follow simple safety precautions, we might help improve our industry’s already good safety record.

This is particularly true when so many people die from not using a safety harness in a boom lift. There are few things more tragic than seeing a perfectly stable boom lift stood on a building site with two dead men at its base, after being catapulted out of the basket.

If you feel that we should change the way in which we report on accidents or continue in the same way, please do let us know, we very much value your opinions. Email: [email protected]

Thank You