Two injured when lift topples in Downtown Crossing

theres actually construction work going on out their

Hope everyone's all right, also hope there is no damage to the bookstore, it's a local treasure.

Whenever there is a report of a construction accident the news, it is sure to be inaccurate. It was not a crane that flipped over, it was a boom lift, these machines are also known as “man lifts”. It may not mean much to the everyday person, but in reality these machines contrast like night and day. I work in the Construction Safety field and am always dismayed at the incorrect data which is rushed into the papers and newscasts. Yellow journalism trounces on the families of the injured and their employers in efforts to be the first ones with the big news. We should all be sending thoughts and prayers to the injured, their families, and co-workers in this time of sadness before the News Media scratches, claws, and fabricates in order to find blame in an accident. Unfortunately accidents do happen; there has been a huge ongoing effort in the construction industry to avoid accidents to provide safe work environments. One should always consider two things, Gravity is THE law, and buildings will never grow shorter.
To the Injured and the loved ones, God bless, and get well soon.

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WOW I don't happen to see the outriggers set in place ????? Like HOW could this happen ?????? Someones inept Brother in Law sucking up some of that sweet sweet overtime ?????

Steet is too small for he crane

Was this one of Menino Jr.'s special consulting jobs?

i was driving toward the street earlier and i notice the crane standing really tall and i was wondering if i should be drving through next to it....

.....my intuition told me something will happen, and it did. it's scary.

Brattle Book Shop

Why is it whenever there is a construction accident with equipment larger than a Bobcat ,the media rings "The Crane Accident" bell? I just can not understand why the homework can not be done and the proper identification of the equipment be determined before the story hits the headlines. It leaves me with very little faith in the media.

I think the piles of wood are a pretty good indicator that this will be a "user error" trying to level machine to sidewalk height where other tires appear to have been located

Perhaps try to redo the calculation of weight distribution?

I don't see any stabilizers extended from that piece of equipment, do you?

No outriggers? Bucket off to the side of the piece? It will probably tip over.

117' That's a big one . The most height I ever used was 85' . You gotta believe these babies are not going to tip over . Course that would be a largish sail in a high wind , I think the wind was about 14 mph at Logan yesterday .

How many construction accidents do we need to have before Boston & OSHA start to enforce its safety regulations?

These accidents are preventable!

Aren't those things supposed to have stabilizers extended when the bucket is up to prevent these kind of accidents?

Do you see any of those extended or broken off?

Stupid or lazy? Or the wrong piece of equipment for that narrow street? Any way you dice it, human error.

my step father is one of the workers injured when the crane collapsed. His injuries are pretty bad and he's lucky to be alive.

The boom lift looks like it rolled off some shoring that was under the backside wheels. This shoring is often done where one side of wheels are on the sidewalk and the other side must be leveled out to allow the lift to work. The lift will not work if it is not level. The lift actually fell backwards. For those two men it must have been a terrible ride. The loft has a top boom that allows the basket to get to the work area on the side of the building. The lower arm allows the basket to elevator up to higher areas of work. Lifts such as these commonly have outriggers that help stabilize the machine. Say a prayer for these tow construction workers working a Saturday morning.

I use this type of lift all the time and by the photo that you have of the accedent
it looks as though the counter weight is usually on the back side of the unit to counter ballance the basket end of the lift and the front weel outriger is not fully extended I hope and pray that the two workers will be o.k.

The map in the article is accurate, but the map on Boston.com's front page is not. It lists Temple Street, which is actually on Beacon Hill. The street in the map should be Temple Place. This is the type of confusion that can lead emergency responders to the wrong address.

I love how they brought in a crane to pick it up.

I can't wait until they accidentally flip it the other way and put this thing right into my dorm room. I am right there on the opposite side of the street.

first of all, there is no outrigger on that machine, its a man lift, not a crane, THAT MEANS NO OUTRIGGERS, and the opperator shouldnt have had it on wood, and the street size isnt the problem at all

Great example of horrible reporting with inaccurate facts. The Globe respondents rarely do well reporting.

Let's have the interns stick to making copies and grabbing coffees.

Let's hope that the injured are doing okay. We'll find out what happened in the coming days.

#3, the article calls it a "lift" at least twice, including at the beginning. The story is not scratching or fabricating. Perhaps you need to calm down and actually read the story before spouting about "yellow journalism," which this is not. Could the article buff up its phrasing? Sure. Could you use a journalism course? Sure. What is rushed and irresponsible is merely saying "accidents happen."

It never fails to amaze me that when we have an accident of this magnitude, all the so called construction experts enjoy voicing their inane expertise.

Must be NON-UNION

Let's save the debates and bickering for later and just say a prayer for these two men and their families.

I think we are all losing sight of what the most important thing is... are the two workers ok? Most of us know at least one person who has worked or is working in construction (minus the fact that the industry is not good for jobs right now). My heart goes out to the individuals and their families. Regardless of what we think about the industry, the political BS related to construction projects in Boston and as one commenter above put it "Someones inept Brother in Law sucking up some of that sweet sweet overtime ?????" - let's all remember that someone could be really hurt right now.

Aerial work platforms or boom lifts do not have outriggors. The axles need to be extended. Looking at the picture the axles were extended, but a couple of factors probably influenced the tipover:

1. From the picture, it looks like one set of wheels was on the sidewalk and somebody placed the wood underneath the wheels on the street to level it.

2. Fully extended over the side of the machine, they were probably over the work envelope of the machine..

Adding from my last post.

Problem #3 - If the two gentlemen jumped fromt he basket before it fell, where they wearing the required fall protection harness?

MUST BE UNION. It is so typical of union companies to ignore safety regulations and pay their workers absurd prevailing wages to not do their job. And yes, it was a boom lift, not a crane.

Some of the reports I've read say that they used some wood blocking to try to level the lift. I've been in a 40 foot boom lift and there's no way I'm trying to get it to level out with some blocks of wood, let alone a lift that's over 100 feet tall. If that's true, that will surely be the blamed for the accident - operator error. As for the people asking about outriggers, most man lifts like this one don't have them. It relies on counterbalance. Also, the ones I've used have an alarm if the lift senses that the base is not level. Some even have a system that won't allow it to be unstable - for instance you can't lift past a certain angle or extend the boom to a place where it would cause the lift to be unstable.

Craig, that was my first response when I saw that the worker(s) jumped. Every time I've been in one, I've had a harness on which attaches to the basket. If the thing started to fall, there's no way I could unhook the harness and jump before it hit the ground. Besides that, I'd be holding on too tight.

#17 - in defense of #3 - guess you didn't see any of the headlines the first couple of hours!!
#23- prevailing wage - do you even know what that means? Or what it means to most non-union workers?? Perhaps you should take a lesson in labor history.
Most importantly, Let's just pray for the injured and their families, their loved ones and colleagues!

ALL OF YOU WHO ARE SAYING WHERES THE OUT RIGGERS TO STABILIZE IT NEED TO WAKE UP... BOOM LIFTS MOST OFTEN DON'T HAVE OUTRIGGERS.. I'VE NEVER USED A BOOM LIFT THAT HAD THEM..

Alot of the big man lifts have out riggers, but not the booms.. When Battery Wharf in the North End was being built, a crew working on the boom lifts attached an umbrella to protect them from the sun.. being over the water and windy, you could see how this could be an issue..

Maybe if the police detial officer wasn't so tired from doing his regular shift, he'd have been able to prevent this. I blame the police!!! *sarcasm, in case anyone didn't get that*

Hello Everyone,

It is with great sadness I am writing that one of the workers has just passed away, after being in a coma and pronounced brain-dead. He was a close friend of my family, and both my mother and sister are at Mass. Gen. consoling his wife and children. As I do not know his family's wishes I am not going to release his name. Unfortunately, I do not have any information about the other worker's condition.

Thank you to everyone who has the families' of the workers in your thoughts and prayers.

this story touches us here in Arizona....the victim who went thru the building happens to be the husband of a very dear family friend, we are praying very hard right now......

if these two workers were in fact working THEY COULDN'T BE IN A UNION!!

These lifts do not have outriggers because they are engineered not to .People here should keep their STUPID comments to themselves, if they have no idea what they are talking about! thoughts and prayers to the injured workers families.

who is in charge of this mess

Is it just me, or has this been happening a lot lately?

Tara, How ridiculous are you? Union jobsites are among the safest in the country. All workers are required to take OSHA training and go through their own trade program. Non-Union are not required to do any of that. There is nothing wrong with a worker making a decent wage for a days pay. YOU MUST BE A REPUBLICAN!

the first thing that JUMPS out is the lack of sufficient cribbing. someone deemed this to be safe? i hate to say this but the responsibility falls on the operator. was he trained AND qualified? what a terrible, avoidable accident

The lift is a Grove A125J. It does not use outriggers like you'd see some cranes or backhoes. The axles extend out hydraulically, from a closed position of 8'6" to 12" when opened up for stability. From all the pictures I've seen, it appears it was being used within its specified range of motion for the height of work and the distance from the facade of the building. The wood blocking that seems to have been used to level the macing, however, is a BIG NO-NO.

From the manufacturer's literature: "Always operate machine on a firm, level surface when elevated."

In defense of the grieving family, the man who died was related to my family.
His wife is my dad's cousin. and just because someone is qualified, and trained (#44) doesn't hold them accountable. This tragedy could have happened to anyone, including yourself if you were them. So i suggest you all consider what you say BEFORE you say it.

Take some time, be courteous and offer some prayer for the families. goodness, you all have become so rude.