Fatality in Scotland through boom failure

A UK construction worker was killed last week and his colleague seriously injured when the boom on a 43m Bizzocchi truck mount failed.

The lift was on hire from Craig Services & Access to One Stop Roofing and was being used to carry out work on on Buchanan House, in Glasgow which houses Network Rail and Transport Scotland.

The Bizzocchi was previously owned by ES Access a rental company, which went into administration last year and there is speculation that the machine might have been previously damaged and the boom repaired.

Gordon Leicester owner of Facelift , which also acquired a number of machines and facilities from ES Access, said that he was absolutely confident in the safety of his machines having had them thoroughly inspected before putting them into service.

Although not claiming to have any particular knowledge of this case, Mr Leicester said that in his opinion it was extremely unwise to try to repair a damaged boom as the smallest defect could seriously compromise the integrity of the part.

Mr Leicester expressed his concern that a number of loss adjusters were putting "aggressive" levels of pressure on companies to have parts repaired when, in the interests of safety, they should be replaced.

Access International will be bringing you more on this subject soon.