22.02.2010

Window cleaners escape injury

Three men cleaning windows from a large truck mounted lift escaped injury earlier today after it tipped over while working in Heerlen, southern Holland, the Netherlands.

The lift tipped over after one of the lifts rear outriggers punched through the ground causing the machine to loose stability. Luckily for the men the telescopic boom came grazed the building and then landed on a glass fronted balcony, with the basket coming to rest of a smaller, parked truck mounted lift.
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The tipped platform

No mats of appear to have been used under the outrigger jacks, which were set up on a blocked car park area, with the outriggers facing the building fully extended and the ones opposite retracted. The fitted outrigger pads are also very small on this unit and designed to be used with the standard mats.

At least one of the lifts, a Wumag WT450, was rented from German based access company Gerken but as far as we know was rented without operator.

The men were shaken but completely unhurt, we do not know if they were wearing harnesses or not.

Vertikal Comment

These men were very lucky indeed, but the accident need not have happened, this type of lift is supplied with standard nylon outrigger mats by the manufacturer, with neat stowage points on the deck of the chassis.

This could well be a case of ‘familiarity breeding contempt’ commercial window cleaners, particularly in Holland, used aerial lifts all of the time on jobs such as this, and most likely when setting up in surfaces like this are fine.

The problem with such block work surfaces is that they are usually set up with the minimum of foundation and their load bearing capability depends on the earth below and how tightly the blocks went together, If even a small mat had been used that spread the load over several more blocks it would have been fine.

Thankfully no one was hurt this time and damage appears to be relatively minor, perhaps it will be a lesson to others on the importance of setting up the outriggers correctly?