05.01.2010

Utility truck tips

A man was injured yesterday when the aerial lift he was using tipped in Noblesville, Indiana. The accident occurred outside the Hamilton town Mall, where the man was reportedly working on a sign or hoarding.

The operator, James Chisham, 44, had extended the boom to around five or six metres in height when the lift tipped onto its side. Chisham was trapped inside the bucket of the vehicle for around 45 minutes and was then extracted by the emergency services.
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The tipped utility truck

He was taken by ambulance to a hospital in Indianapolis, where he was reported to be “stable to good condition”. Chisham is an employee of Sign Doc in Indianapolis and, according to the fire fighters who rescued him, had not set the outriggers of the utility truck before extending the boom.

Vertikal Comment

Mr Chisham appears to have been lucky and may escape without serious injury. One assumes that he is a regular user of the ‘bucket truck’ and it is hard to understand therefore why he had not extended the outriggers?

One sobering thought, had he fallen from the same height from a ladder or scaffold, it is unlikely that he would be here. It is also a blessing that no pedestrians were passing under the boom at the time.