Thrown from bucket

PUClimber

PUClimber

Location
Indiana
Well yesterday I got word of a gentleman who was using his bucket in a manner other than what it is designed. He was working for a utility company and was using it to pull over a spar. He wasn't using a heavy duty bucket with the crane which can be used for this but rather a regular truck. He was hooked up and started to pull on it and his rope snapped and shot him out of the bucket throwing him around 10 ft above where his bucket was stationed which was around 40 ft. He survived the fall but with severe injuries while almost landing on a coworker who was positioned by another truck. Said guy is now getting fired from the company for not using the equipment properly and not following safety procedures due to not being tied in. He had a belt on but was not hooked up to the bucket.
 
He survived? Lucky bastid!

ALWAYS wear your harness when in a bucket truck! PERIOD!
 
You can almost imagine the force of that. It would be a giant ling shot with a person in the bucket. Dang!
bigeyes.gif
 
Glad to hear he survived the fall, I hope he heals fast. It's to bad, he had to lose his job over this, and while having to heal from the injuries. Makes it kinda hard to look for a new job.

Did he have some safety write-ups in the past, or was this a "all three strikes" deal?

Thanks, for letting us know, great teaching lesson.
 
ANSI Z133.1 - 2006

5.2.2 Aerial devices shall be provided with an approved point of attachment on which to
secure a full-body harness with an energy-absorbing lanyard or body belt and lanyard,
which shall be worn when aloft.

5.2.4 Aerial devices or aerial ladders shall not be used as cranes or hoists to lift or lower materials
or tree parts, unless they were specifically designed by the manufacturer to do so.
 
Exactly TMW that is why after behing catapaulted out of the bucket and landing on the ground and being in severe pain the company fired him. For not following safety standards and using unsafe practices.
 
I am unclear on if he was trained but I am going to assume he was as he's been with the company utility company atleast 10 yrs. This information I got through the grapevine so the facts are a little sketchy.
 
To make note of what notahacker said "the forces needed to do that" I wonder when that bucket will be up for sale on some lot?? Makes you think real hard when buying used.
 
Strange that he was wearing a harness and did not have it clipped in. Why go through the trouble of even putting on the harness. He must not of given any thought to check to see if it was secured. Why would you not tell the bucket operator that he is not secured. Anybody can tell from the ground if he is not secured. If they fire him they should fire the whole crew for not looking out for each other.
 
[ QUOTE ]
He survived? Lucky bastid!

ALWAYS wear your harness when in a bucket truck! PERIOD!

[/ QUOTE ]

A pair of my Co-workers had the misfortune of having a (hired) bucket come free from its mounts and plummet 30ft. one had a harness on, the other didn't.

The latter was thrown free, but the former-attached to the bucket-sustained the worse injury, losing all real use of one side.

They both lost their spleens and only the latter is still working, albeit only as a grounsman.

Don't want to be libelous, but it was a company that rhymes with hoard that supplied the decrepit(sic?) machine.

Obviously, this is the exception to the rule, but a harness won't always save your [censored].

Maybe the attachment points should be on the boom, not the fiberglass bucket itself.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Of course the attachment point is on the boom. I've never seen otherwise.

[/ QUOTE ]
In every single Mobile Elevated Work Platform (MEWP) I've ever been in, the attachment point has been attached to the fiberglass shell or the cage, never the boom.

Bear in mind I am from the UK
 
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