Spider lift flipped over in Louisiana

A few days ago, this law suit was dropped by the plaintiff. We can now talk about it so we are going to do as we usually do: state facts.

A few minutes after the accident that happened with this Easy Lift 59-30AJ unit, we received a call from the owner of unit stating his lift tipped. Thanks God, he was not injured. Given the reluctance to share details on how it happened we immediately agreed with him for a pick up of the machine in high emergency. Despite the fact we are convinced that our equipment is the safest on the market, no one is immune to failure and it is imperative to react immediately to prevent other accidents.

As opposed to some other manufacturers who have showed clearly in the past that they are more concerned by profit than anything else, our main concern is the safety of all operators. We picked up unit. The objective was to make an in-depth investigation here with a third-party structural to prevent any other potential accident should it be determined there is a flaw with this model. That is an absolute prerequisite to everyone working around manufacturing and sale for lifting equipment. Act otherwise is a criminal act in our view.

Upon unit arrival here in our shop even before it was unloaded from the trailer, we got a good feel of what happen.
Thanks to the only witness of the incident who supplied some pictures who confirmed what we saw from the unit even before unloading.
Even if it became obvious with the unit in front of us and the few pictures of the witness that this situation had nothing to do with the unit, we performed the full investigation immediately with a third-party structural engineer who made all the safety, stability and structural tests before emitting his final report.

All of this brought us quickly to the conclusion that the integrity and safety of unit was not the cause of this accident. Operator error is. With the conclusions, we need to reiterate some of the followings:
-Whatever the job, all work at heights requires great caution Lack of knowledge, of training, simple innocence or recklessness, no one has the right to gamble with anyone’s life
-Any questionable situation involving the safety or lack of maintenance on an aerial equipment must be documented and reported to employers and legal authorities
-As owner, you must think of your employee’s lives.
-Employees, you do not have to risk your safety for a greedy employer

Stay safe out there.59-30AJ tipped.jpg
 
UP Equip said:
A few days ago, this law suit was dropped by the plaintiff. We can now talk about it so we are going to do as we usually do: state facts.

A few minutes after the accident that happened with this Easy Lift 59-30AJ unit, we received a call from the owner of unit stating his lift tipped. Thanks God, he was not injured. Given the reluctance to share details on how it happened we immediately agreed with him for a pick up of the machine in high emergency. Despite the fact we are convinced that our equipment is the safest on the market, no one is immune to failure and it is imperative to react immediately to prevent other accidents.

As opposed to some other manufacturers who have showed clearly in the past that they are more concerned by profit than anything else, our main concern is the safety of all operators. We picked up unit. The objective was to make an in-depth investigation here with a third-party structural to prevent any other potential accident should it be determined there is a flaw with this model. That is an absolute prerequisite to everyone working around manufacturing and sale for lifting equipment. Act otherwise is a criminal act in our view.

Upon unit arrival here in our shop even before it was unloaded from the trailer, we got a good feel of what happen.
Thanks to the only witness of the incident who supplied some pictures who confirmed what we saw from the unit even before unloading.
Even if it became obvious with the unit in front of us and the few pictures of the witness that this situation had nothing to do with the unit, we performed the full investigation immediately with a third-party structural engineer who made all the safety, stability and structural tests before emitting his final report.

All of this brought us quickly to the conclusion that the integrity and safety of unit was not the cause of this accident. Operator error is. With the conclusions, we need to reiterate some of the followings:
-Whatever the job, all work at heights requires great caution Lack of knowledge, of training, simple innocence or recklessness, no one has the right to gamble with anyone’s life
-Any questionable situation involving the safety or lack of maintenance on an aerial equipment must be documented and reported to employers and legal authorities
-As owner, you must think of your employee’s lives.
-Employees, you do not have to risk your safety for a greedy employer

Stay safe out there.View attachment 84319
Click to expand...
Thanks for sharing, you can’t fix stupid owners ! rigging off the basket like that is pure cowboy shit
 
It flipped because they rigged out of the basket? Not for nothing, could the basket have bent because they FELL out of the basket as it was going down? Or the force of landing pushed the operator through the basket ? Do you know for a fact the rigged out of the basket or just assuming because you circled ropes in the picture ? You need to explain the picture in further detail with regards to boom angle deployment and the drop zone ? How do you know they operated the ground controls and do these over-ride any sensors ? Finally, why do you claim your lifts are the safest on the market?
 
bck said:
It flipped because they rigged out of the basket? Not for nothing, could the basket have bent because they FELL out of the basket as it was going down? Or the force of landing pushed the operator through the basket ? Do you know for a fact the rigged out of the basket or just assuming because you circled ropes in the picture ? You need to explain the picture in further detail with regards to boom angle deployment and the drop zone ? How do you know they operated the ground controls and do these over-ride any sensors ? Finally, why do you claim your lifts are the safest on the market?
Click to expand...


I was thinking the same about the basket bending from the force of guy falling out it
 
The bend would seem to be on the other side of the basket if it was impact from the operator.

If there was no operator, I wonder how a piece would be rigged and cut. No operator in the basket would increase capacity.
 
southsoundtree said:
The bend would seem to be on the other side of the basket if it was impact from the operator.

If there was no operator, I wonder how a piece would be rigged and cut. No operator in the basket would increase capacity.
Click to expand...
Could a person hit hard enough to bend the basket like that and leave with no injury?

I didn't even consider that they may have been using the lift as a crane with no operator in it (article seems to indicate there was an operator in the lift). Could have had a climber in the tree??? If they were putting dynamic loads on it, it wouldn't take much to pull it over operator or not.

There ARE discrepancies here. Article in OP says injuries. @UP Equip says no injuries. These are both the same incident, right? Or is UP sharing an example of operator error from another suit that was dropped?
 
Well the old saying is “a picture is worth a thousand words “
From every accident report I’ve read on all spider lift accidents has been caused by operator error so I would be surprised if this was any different!

One thing I would like to point out is that Up Equipment always has to say bad things about their competitors or “other manufacturers”

Not professional imo

I would never talk about anything bad about my competition to any customers!

If I don’t have any good things to say I don’t mention it period.
But hey that’s me
 
From the post from Up Equipment, what I have gathered is that the guy in the basket was using the rail as a rigging point. Perhaps the branch hung up or needed to be lowered in a different spot? The guy in the basket may have had the ground guy use the lower controls while he held the branch which made the machine tip over. Essentially their actions turned it into a giant lever flipping it from it’s relatively stable base. That is just what I’m guessing based on what was implied in the statement posted.

He never states that their machines are the safest. He says “we are convinced that our equipment is the safest on the market.” Everyone thinks their kids are the greatest so this doesn’t surprise me. Also what he stresses is how they reacted to the incident and how that sets them apart. To me this could be looked at as a positive or suspiciously. They are either going above and beyond to quickly investigate and deal with something or what better way to get ahead of a bad story than by quickly getting the unit and getting/staying on the customer’s good side?

From what I’ve read I don’t believe the manufacturer has done anything nefarious. But there is a lot unsaid in that post. Like was the lawsuit just dropped or was a settlement reached? That is a huge difference. Obviously there are two sides to this story and the other side might have an non disclosure agreement restricting them ever talking about their side so we will likely never hear that side. Once again it goes to show how delicate these machines are and how important it is to follow all manufacturers instructions on their use.
 
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RyanCafferky said:
Like was the lawsuit just dropped or was a settlement reached?
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Settlement was reached Sept 29th. Details not public record. From the court docket:

Minute Entry for proceedings held before Magistrate Judge Donna Phillips Currault: Settlement Conference held on 9/29/2022. After extensive settlement discussions with the parties and counsel, the court was advised that a settlement has been reached.

ORDER OF DISMISSAL - IT IS ORDERED that this action be and it is hereby dismissed as to all parties, without costs and without prejudice to the right, upon good cause shown, within sixty days, to reopen the action if settlement is not consummated. Signed by Judge Jane Triche Milazzo on 9/30/2022.
Click to expand...
 
ATH said:
Than this has to be a different case than the one UP referenced above...right?

That post starts out "A few days ago, this law suit was dropped by the plaintiff."...
Click to expand...
Nope.

St. Pierre v. UP Equip Inc et al, filed March 5, 2021 and dismissed Sept 30, 2022.

More like a few weeks ago than a few days ago, but the same case cited in the original post.
 
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Still very vague. Just because the case was dropped doesn’t mean there wasn’t a settlement. That’s usually how it works. Parties agree on a settlement so it doesn’t have to get brought into a lengthy and expensive court case.
And there’s still no conclusion to what really happened. UP post suggest that it was operator error and they do not definitively state what caused the unit to fail.
All and all, vague and sketchy. Similar to CMC issues.
 
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bck said:
Still very vague. Just because the case was dropped doesn’t mean there wasn’t a settlement. That’s usually how it works. Parties agree on a settlement so it doesn’t have to get brought into a lengthy and expensive court case.
And there’s still no conclusion to what really happened. UP post suggest that it was operator error and they do not definitively state what caused the unit to fail.
All and all, vague and sketchy. Similar to CMC issues.
Click to expand...
We already know a settlement was reached. See quoted info in Tuebor’s post just 2 posts above yours.


Tuebor said:
Settlement was reached Sept 29th. Details not public record. From the court docket:
Click to expand...
 
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