Cherry picker operator crushed at Reading site earlier this week

A cherry picker operator suffered neck and chest injuries after being trapped against steel beams.

The incident comes as contractors are being urged to hire access machines fitted with anti-crush bars or alarms after several similar incidences that killed operators.

The young man, understood to be in his twenties, was working on Morgan Sindall’s Katesgrove Primary School in Reading.

Watch manager Ian Maycock told local Get Reading reporter: “The cherry picker was operating in the horizontals of the steelworks and for some unknown reason the operator had become wedged between the steelwork beams and the cage of the cherry picker and as a result sustained chest and neck injuries.”

Firefighters cut away the metalwork of the cage and helped paramedics put the man, who was conscious throughout, on a spinal board to be taken to hospital.

A total of 13 workers were killed using powered access machines between 2003 and 2009, six using cherry pickers.

They died either from crush injuries or asphyxiation, often after falling onto controls and being pinned between an overhead obstruction

Source: Construction Enquirer

LST Comment: Anti-crush bars are not fitted to all machines. When liaising with plant Hire Companies to ensure that you spec these as a requirement when hiring MEWPS, or run the risk of repeating the horrific case mentioned above.