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We made the news again..... well not me, but................

Gino

Premium Subscriber
Reading, or outside of Reading.... Wyomissing had a small crane tip over and it's up in the air [no pun intended] as to what caused the incident. For as high as they were, I didn't see any outriggers, but then, maybe that unit doesn't require it. They are speculating the wind might've caused it, but thanks to be strapped in and harnessed as we are constantly reminding others here on s101, these two guys survived about a 4 story fall. The guy working the wrecker is a customer of ours and that Police Municipality is a customer of ours, so maybe I can call them to find out who the company was that had the injuries. They are holding back their name at this point.


Authorities are investigating a freak accident involving a crane that toppled, crushing an SUV as it fell to the ground.
The incident happened shortly after 2:30 Wednesday afternoon in the employee parking area for the VF Outlets in Wyomissing, Berks Co.
The SUV that was crushed belongs to Fran Krotulski, a VF Outlets lease administrator.

"I'm not getting a lot of work done today," said Krotulski, who was not in her SUV at the time the crane tipped over. "I was wear I was supposed to be up at my desk."
Officials said two crane operators were replacing a banners on the side of the building when the crane fell over.
Outlets officials said the workers did not fall out of the basket of the crane because they were strapped in.
"I'm just hoping that it's just cuts and bruises, at worse," said Rich Maloof, director of real estate for VF Outlets.
Both workers were taken away in stretchers, officials said.
Authorities said they are not sure if the wind played a role in this accident.
The Occupational Safety and Environmental Association (OSEA) is investigating the accident, officials said.
Meanwhile, for Krotulski, she says she is not worried that her SUV was destroyed.
"It's just a car. That's all paperwork that will be worked out."
Officials say one of crane workers is listed in fair condition at The Reading Hospital, and the other crane worker was released.
 

jayhawksigns

New Member
I have never seen outriggers on that size of lift before.

Used one before, still prefer being up in a regular bucket truck though.
 

Gino

Premium Subscriber
Here's another part......

The crane fell on an SUV smashing it, bit it also landed on some railroad tracks where a train was just minutes away from coming down the line. Talk about surviving one calamity, but to get double skid marks in your shorts and still making it......
 

J Hill Designs

New Member
yeah those things dont have outriggers...I've operated that model before, and this merely adds to my apprehension of doing it again
 

Baz

New Member
Wow ... I have never been up in one of those. But i always wondered if they would be easily tiped over. This is my first time learning about one of them doing so.

Glad no one got hurt! :thumb:
 

Marlene

New Member
that looks like one of those rental things. I wonder if they were lifting too much for that kind of rig or had people who haven't run one of those at the controls. hope the guys are OK.
 

jfiscus

Rap Master
Sounds to me like if they were hanging large banners, that the wind caught a banner and the guys didn't want to drop the banner (or it was tied off to the lift somehow) and it acted like a sail & brought the lift down.
 

Gino

Premium Subscriber
We use 19' scissors lifts all the time. We've used the 60' and 90' without any problems.
I believe this one was a 60'er.
exide crane.jpg

I tend to think someone was trying to do something they shouldn't. The amount of time I've spent in one... it takes a lot to do something like that of the one in the news today.

I'm still glad to see no one hurt, but this is probably the fourth or so time this has happened in our area. Some years ago, a guy fell out of the cage about 90' in the air. Directly on his head. Literally, nothing left of that guy. Where was his safety harness ?? That company is no longer around. The company that WAS doing all of this Vanity Fair's work just went out of business a few months ago. Either someone with no experience was doing it... or they had their own people in a rental unit as Marlene suggested. Time will tell.
 
in my apprenticeship 20 some years ago I was a passenger in a scissor lift ,the operator was driving it with the platform at full height as we replaced some neon units on the exterior of a building. At one point a tire got stuck in a flower bed & instead of lowering the platform & driving out , he tried to rock it forward & backward..we instantly knew we were going down. It was a very strange sensation at first it truly was slow motion & then we reached a point that was just ligtening fast collision with the ground below.

I was shaken but not hurt the driver broke an arm & hip. There was never ending questions from osha & a lawsuit eventually for worker's comp for the driver. No fun.

be safe,no reason to risk life & limb installing or servicing signs.
 

visual800

Active Member
looking at the vid it appears it had alot of weight hanging off the side of the wheelbase, if it was me I would have pulled the vehicle stright towards the building whereas I would have had more stability.

I have rented these before and im always cautious of how my wheels are placed. I do not belive wind blew this over i think they were too close to building and up too high.
 

visual800

Active Member
in my apprenticeship 20 some years ago I was a passenger in a scissor lift ,the operator was driving it with the platform at full height as we replaced some neon units on the exterior of a building. At one point a tire got stuck in a flower bed & instead of lowering the platform & driving out , he tried to rock it forward & backward..we instantly knew we were going down. It was a very strange sensation at first it truly was slow motion & then we reached a point that was just ligtening fast collision with the ground below.

I was shaken but not hurt the driver broke an arm & hip. There was never ending questions from osha & a lawsuit eventually for worker's comp for the driver. No fun.

be safe,no reason to risk life & limb installing or servicing signs.

I think i would have knocked the hell out of him. scissor lifts scare the hell out of me and I will go up in anything
 

Desert_Signs

New Member
They were operating it without the "outriggers" deployed. I know, you're saying - I don't see any outriggers. Well, it's actually the tires. It's an S-80, which has extendable axles (as opposed to the S-80X which has a different counterbalance system). It really shouldn't have been able to boom up unless the axles were set. If you look at the photos, you can see it definitely has extendable axles.

So, if that's the case, it's operator error (failure to know correct operation procedures). Even if the machine's safety features weren't working, the operator should have known the axles needed to be extended before booming up.
 
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