03.10.2006

Fatal Unloading

A 59 year old man died has died after being catapulted from the cage of a boom lift he was helping to unload from a truck. The accident happened in the yard of Michigan Cat tractor in Novi, Michigan.

Ronnie Stockton, was thrown straight up in the air landing back on the boom lift suffering serious chest injuries from which he died. Stockton was driving the lift off of the truck onto a loading ramp, which was slightly higher than the truck.

The rear wheels of the lift dropped suddenly into a gap between the truck bed and the ramp, possibly caused by the truck rolling forward a little. The sudden drop turned the boom into a catapult and as Stockton was not wearing a harness with short lanyard, he was ejected from the cage, high enough for the fall back onto the machine to be fatal.

Stockton was employed by Varsity Towing, a transport and recovery contractor, where he had worked for around a month.
Michigan Cat has only recently entered the aerial lift rental business, which is headquartered at its Novi store and serves the greater Detroit area.

Vertikal Comment

The importance of wearing a harnesses in a boom lift has come to the fore in recent months as we have experienced a spate of fatal accidents where operators have been ejected from platforms that have remained upright.

However even those who always use a harness when up in a boom, would not always wear one to simply unload a lift. This incident is a little unusual, and it could be argued that the risk of slipping off the side of the truck is greater and that in such a case it is better not to be attached to the lift.

While the statitics are not clear, one thing is sure, the unloading and loading of lifts, or for that matter construction equipment in general, is one of the top three causes of fatal or serious accidents.