Falling Bucket Takes Worker Down

Just as construction can be dangerous work, so can taking structures down. This proved to be the case for a crew repairing a signboard located high up the side of a building. They had completed the repair work and were starting to take down the scaffold used for the project. A mobile crane was being used to lower the beam that had supported the suspended scaffolding. One worker rode the bucket of the mobile crane to attach the floor to a sling so it could be lowered to the ground. The bucket carrying the scaffolding got caught on an angle fitting used to support the signboard. The worker tried to free the bucket by swinging it back and forth, but this action caused the bucket to come loose from the hook of the crane and it fell to the ground, carrying the worker with it. He was killed in the fall.

Workers should go aloft only in equipment designed and approved for this purpose, not on a crane carrying materials. A fatality such as this could be prevented by proper planning of the job so the scaffold floor was taken down without the worker riding the bucket. The planning could have included how to prevent it from getting caught on the sign fitting or how to free it safely if it did.