Canarsie, Brooklyn, N.Y., May 2012—Two construction workers were taken to the hospital with serious injuries that included multiple broken bones after the aerial lift truck they were working in tipped onto its side and struck the work platform on the ground.
Investigators blame a mechanical failure for the tipover. The two workers were in the work platform at the end of the truck’s extended telescopic boom and positioned to the side of the truck while working on electrical lines at a construction site when the accident happened. The rig's outriggers were extended and set. The truck tipped up onto the two outriggers nearest the work area.
Fire department rescuers said that both men in the aerial work basket survived the fall because they were wearing safety harnesses that kept them in the basket and because the boom and basket landed on a large mound of dirt that lessened the impact.
Even at that, rescuers had to cut away part of the platform to free one of the two victims. OSHA is investigating. –abclocal.go.com/wabc
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