14.06.2023

Boom lift fatality

A man died last month on a construction site in Phoenix, Arizona after he was thrown out of the platform of a boom lift when it was struck by a passing truck.

The incident occurred on the Interstate 10 highway, in the early hours of the morning of May 18th, the man had been working on an overpass from two lanes that had been closed to traffic. But he then tried to cross the two lanes that remained open, in order to reach the hard shoulder with the articulated JLG boom lift from the United Rentals fleet. As he crossed the third lane a box truck approached at speed, the driver saw him, and veered away but the top of the truck struck the basket which was directly over one of the open lanes.
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We assume that the operator was not wearing a harness and lanyard, although the platform was badly damaged which might have caused an anchor failure?

The news report below explains the incident in more detail