July 20, 2012

Another manlift accident

After replacing a cone roof on a tank, the contractor crew was removing unwanted material from the work site using a manlift. The incident report mentions that "One item to be moved was a steel box full of metal parts, weighing a total of approximately 900 pounds. Rather than split the load into smaller lots, the Tank Service Supervisor decided to remove the loaded box from the roof using the manlift, so the box was rigged to the underside of the operator’s basket on the lift.
As he began moving the boom over, the manlift suddenly tipped over because the combined weight of the contractor and equipment in the lift basket greatly exceeded the machine’s posted capacity limits. The box hit the ground first. The basket the Tank Services Supervisor was in immediately landed on the box; the force of impact loosened the slings, detaching the box from the basket. With the weight of the box off the basket, the counterweight righted the lift, causing the basket to quickly rebound to about 15’ above grade.
The sudden, forceful, upward movement of the boom catapulted the Tank Services Supervisor out of the basket to the ground. He was wearing a harness and lanyard at the time, but had failed to “tie off” to the anchor point in the basket before he moved the lift. He was hospitalized and is recovering"

Read the incident report in this link.


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