03.11.2009

Fatal boom accident in Canaries

Two men died on Monday in Lanzarote - Canary Islands, after the boom lift they were working in tipped over backwards.

The men, a 41 year-old Spaniard and a 46 year-old Peruvian man were cleaning a new building alongside a highway in the island’s capital, Arrecife, at a height of between 12 and 14 metres, when something appears to have happened to the boom.
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The boom tipped over backwards

Local reports are sketchy but the lift, a JLG articulated boom owned by locally based rental company Maquinas Opein, was operating with its telescopic riser retracted and slightly raised with the boom was elevated and extended.

The boom of the lift fell across the highway that connects the city to the island’s airport and struck a vehicle, but the occupants were not seriously injured.
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The platform came down into the street

Vertikal Comment

This is a very strange accident, the ground under the wheels appears to have been fine, the machine was clearly not overloaded, and unless we have misunderstood local reports it was not hit by a passing vehicle.

There seems to have been some structural issue between boom and riser, but this might have occurred on impact - Hopefully we will discover later what caused this tragic accident.