Bucket broken

Tom Dunlap

Tom Dunlap

Here from the beginning
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Retired in Minneapolis
This accident happened a few weeks ago. The climber is still in intensive care unit.

Too often arbos think that material handling bucket trucks are cranes. Well...they are, but they generally only have a load limit of several hundred pounds.


Here's the test of the article:

A landing zone was set up at the Corner of Ingleside Avenue and Forrest Street in Athens to airlift a man to Erlanger Medical Center after he fell while trimming trees.

A tree trimmer plummeted to upwards of 50 feet after the bucket lift he was in malfunctioned.

The accident happened just before 1 p.m. Monday on Dixon Avenue in the Ingleside area of Athens.

According to emergency personnel at the scene, Kenny Morgan, of Morgan's Tree Trimming was working in a bucket truck trimming limbs from a tree when the accident occurred. At the scene, responders said the bucket lift Morgan was using apparently broke down the middle while he was putting pressure on a limb. When the bucket malfunctioned, Morgan was spilled out and hit the ground.

Emergency responders said the bucket could have been upwards of 50 feet in the air when Morgan fell.

The Athens Fire Department, along with the Police Department, set up a landing site for Air Evac in between Mayfield Dairy and the E.G. Fisher Library on Ingleside Avenue to airlift Morgan to Erlanger Medical Center in Chattanooga.

Morgan is listed in critical condition this morning at Erlanger.
 

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That pic goes into my Treebuzz picture file...
THat poor fellow must have been shown at one time that it
was OK to use that bucket in that manner. He must have been trying to push a lot of weight? "SNAP!" Hope he makes it.
 
Looking closely at the pic I have a few questions. First, the blue rope has nothing on the end. Isn't it normal to have at least a snap or something on it?

I wonder if maybe he was lowering something and the rope broke (although the end of the rope doesn't look particularly frayed). The boom could have then suddenly jumped upward causing the bucket to strike part of the tree with a severe enough blow to break it. Another possibility could be that the rope-breaking scenario occurred and the operator was thrown out as a result, his fall protection was attached to/near the operating control, and when it "deployed" (reached full extension) arresting his fall, the shock was too much for the already (previously?) weakened bucket, causing it to fail. The bucket is marked as having a capacity of 275 lb. That could easily be surpassed by a fall arrest system, couldn't it? When it failed, the fall arrest, having already stretched to its max then failed with the second loading produced by him falling another 6 feet.

Not to say that he was necessarily doing anything stupid this time...

Is that a wrap of duct tape around the base of the bucket?
 
I'm wondering why he put pressure on the bucket at all. Need more info to be sure. If he had a full fall arrest harness and lanyard attached to the boom he might've been ok.
I never see too much use for material handling buckets myself only because in the hands of the wrong people they will try to lift way more than what they can handle. The ex-Davey guys I worked with would use 55ft high ranger forestry booms as modified "cranes" to lift wood over fences. No wonder that particular bucket had three longitudial cracks in the boom and had to be scraped.

Later
 
[ QUOTE ]
At the scene, responders said the bucket lift Morgan was using apparently broke down the middle while he was putting pressure on a limb.

[/ QUOTE ]

What does "...putting pressure on a limb..." mean?


I understand what glens is saying, but the article says that the boom broke while the the operator was putting pressure on a limb, not after a rope broke.


I can't visualize how the thing would go back together. Which is another way of saying I can't see how \the bomm/bucket looked before everything fell apart. The 'blue rope' appears to be run through a pulley and some other bracket at the end of the boom. If I try to visualize the bucket back on the end of the boom it seems that the pulley wouild be in the middle of the operator's part of the bucket.


Is that Athens, Georgia?
 
I pplayed around with cropping and enlarging the original picture. It looks like there is duct tape around the base of the bucket. Look at the yellow strapping that's hanging down from the bucket. That looks like a ratchet strap. Could the bucket have been cracked before and someone used tape and strapping to hold it together?

The blue rope is run through the sheave at the end of the boom. I can't see any attachment of the rope to the bucket.

Proper fall arrest would have been a big asset for this fella.
 
Mahk,

That's a rope winch assembly on the top/end of the boom. The bucket mounts to the side. Note the text which says "pushing on a limb" was speculation on the part of the emergency responders, and I believe the phrase "the bucket lift ... broke down the middle" would be better as "the lift bucket ... broke". From the photo it's obvious it didn't break "down the middle" so this should provide a clue to the ability of the responders to have a clue.

I also see some tape around the base of the controller. It definitely appears to be a strap connected to the controller mount. I'm thinking either it was his fall arrest and/or that the rope winch wasn't working to his satisfaction and he had a load attached there. I guess it could also be that the bucket had been obviously cracked and that the yellow strap(s) hanging were there to cinch up the bucket. See the enlarged section attached. Note also that the bucket corner on the left in the picture is also split from top to bottom; the corner on the right is the only one still intact. Hmm...

Glen
 

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Tom, I swear my post was totally independent of yours!

[edit] I agree, that's definitely a ratchet strap [/edit]
 
Glen,

We were both cropping and examing at the same time :)

Any comments on this bucket operator? He didn't have eye protection on but there might be more to see...
 

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I'd say you beat me to it by a few minutes. But I commented on the duct tape around the base a bit earlier.

The operator? If that bucket was indeed ratchet-strapped together I don't have much good to say about his intelligence. We still don't know if he had any fall arrest equipment or not so I can't comment on that. I know I've always very much preferred to be in the tree itself instead of in a piece of equipment next to it and this scene doesn't do anything to change that. At least if the tree were to fail below me I'd likely still have a little something to ride down for whatever it'd be worth. A pure free-fall from a bucket like that certainly wouldn't be long enough in duration to make it worth my while.

[edit] When I replied you'd merely asked about "the operator" and there wasn't an attachment. Now I see you're talking about that picture of yourself, hahaha! He's got wings so he don't need no stinkin' harness, right? [/edit]
 
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I can't visualize how the thing would go back together.

[/ QUOTE ]
Try this as attached.
 

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