15.05.2007

Boom hit by truck

Two men working in a 40ft self propelled straight boom fell around four metres on Monday in Knoxville Tennessee after it was struck by a large articulated truck.

Tim Lindsey and Hector Gonzales are listed in ‘guarded condition’ after being airlifted to the UT Medical Center . Neither appears to have been wearing a harness.

The accident happened near Exit 4 on Interstate 81 around 1:00 pm on Monday.
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The 40ft JLG telescopic is owned by United Rentals and remained upright

Lindsey and Gonzales of Renfro Construction were working on a bridge for the Tennessee Department of Transport.

Police say that a tractor trailer struck the boom of the cherry picker they were on, knocking them both out.
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The booms fly section was bent and platform damaged

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The basket was damaged but the boomlift remained stable

Blood samples were taken from the truck driver due to the seriousness of the men’s injuries.

Police are trying to figure out if the lift was too low over the road or if the truck driver was out of his lane.

Vertikal Comment

There have been numerous accidents over the past 12 months involving lifts working over busy roads. The easy way to stop this is to restrict such work to closed roads. However this is over the top, if well planned and organised such work can be totally safe. It seems that all too often such work is treated very casually, in spite of the fact that the potential loss of life if things go wrong is massive.

In this incident while devastating for the two men, and almost certainly traumatic for the truck driver, so far their have been no fatalities and it did not cause a pile up or affect any other motorists.

Finally of course neither was wearing a harness, one wonders how their injuries might have compared if they had been? The boom a JLG, remained upright although the boom fly section was bent and basket sustained damage from the collision.