We lost our 42m today. Thank God nobody was hurt, but it was very close. The boom landed on a ready mix truck while it was driving away. It landed on the cab and then bounced up on the drum. I have pics but I'm not going to upload them tonight. Just got home it's been a long day. This was completely 100% operator error. The operator was tired and not all there. He completed the pour fine, swung around to suck a ball, did that and because of the calcium content decided to wash out where he sat (which was on dirt and was fine). He finished washing up and being in the state of mind thought he was done so commenced to put in his out riggers but forgot his boom was still in the air. Pulled in the right side completely and went to the left and swung in his rear X and there she went. He did something that was not in his normal routine. He washed right after he sucked his ball. This change in routine really screwed him up and you know the result. DON'T CHANGE YOUR ROUTINE if you can help it. He felt rushed because of the CC content. I asked him if that 5 minutes he saved by not folding his boom up and moving to wash out was worth it. Of course his answer was no. I will post pics tomorrow. Hope somebody learns from this one.

It is not an excuse, it is a reason.

I am glad that no one was hurt.

Changing your routine is dangerous; doing so while you are not alert is very dangerous.

Z can you get the "shaken not stirred" operator to post his experience? Everyone can learn from it; I am sure he did. It is so easy to loose track of 'where you are' in the process. I hope that he can get over the shock, some never do. For his own good someone should keep an eye on him.

Being human is being not perfect, I am glad he hurt no one/ or himself ;~)

ps.

there is NEVER an excuse or reason to hit a power line

"moneybags"  is there a good excuse for anything like this?  NO...... excuse or not that is why it happened.  By the way everybody the operator did not blame it on a changed routine he told me he just screwed up and it was totally his fault.  I talked to him about it and asked him "do you know why this happened".  It is probably cause of your changed routine.  It is my words not his.  Although I believe in my heart 100% that the reason this happened was due to changed routine and being not "there" 100% mentally.

We are all creatures of habit, change the routine or habit stuff gets screwed up.

Safety is about concentrating on the job at hand. A momentary lapse is all that it takes for a disaster to happen. It is essential that you stay focused on what you are doing now and the effect that action has on the overall job. (If this then? what)

A routine is one way of maintaining that focus; an edge in the successful job done well. When you are out of sync you loose one tool; and sometimes your focus is lost as well. Every one of us knows that you can not stow the outriggers with the boom still up. That is not the issue. Yes, that is the reason the pump fell over. That is not the lesson to take away from this event, you know that.

Just think about all the pictures you have seen of pumps 'tire side up'. A large majority of them have the outriggers stowed. All of the operators of these machines knew that they would fall over with no outriggers. What they did not know (at that time) was that they had ceased to be aware of where they were at that time. That is the issue here as I see it; just a momentary loss of focus, a lapse in your situational awareness.

The better you are at your job the less likely you are to loose your situational awareness, your focus. We have all seen operators that NEVER really "get it" they never have a handle on 'where' in the routine they are. Their brain never does make the connection ... If this-- then (reaction).

I used to work for a guy, (Tom). His observation was that "The guy moves like a professional". = he knows where he is.

Watch a really good, focused operator move around his machine. It is like a dance where he knows the steps. He is focused; his situational awareness is set on high at all times. If the music stops or changes he still knows where he is and what is next.

I write often about the routine. The routine is not and end to its self; it is a tool. Like any tool it makes your job easier to do well. The tool is not the answer, it is a way to simplify or make finding the answer easier and more assured. It is an edge or aid in the battle for a job well done.

It is your job to maintain situational awareness at all times. There are many activities vying for your attention; cell phones, friends, strange noises that don’t fit into the situation, truck horns, two signal men, calcium chloride in the middle of summer… the list is endless. Sometimes it is just too much to deal with and you get short with people or over react to a situation. The dispatcher wants you on another job, your wife would like you to be home early, the mud has been slow all day, the drivers want to yack with each other, the back end of your pump has two yards on it, the contractor wants you to move to the other side of the job to do one column; being the ring master in the circus and staying focused on your primary job is tough.

A rookie needs to watch the box and the boom and that is ok because that is who he is. He knows that he doesn’t have the “tools” to operate on auto pilot. The other end of the spectrum is the guy that can back in the mixer truck, move the boom, think about the next set up, tell the driver discharging that he is getting ready to turn off the pump, tell the dispatcher when he will be done, glance at his outriggers and NEVER forget where he is or not know the foreseeable reaction of his actions. 99.5% of all operators are somewhere in between these two extremes.

How do you get from rookie to auto pilot?

Practice

Remember what works

Develop learning tools

Learn the art of being able to focus

Create your system

Practice

Remember where you are

Study the reactions to your actions

Practice

Mentally develop a list of what doesn’t work

Refine your system

Practice

Think before you act

Practice

Know where you are

Practice

Become situationally aware

Practice

Practice makes perfect

;~)

    Sir,I can agree with all of the aformentioned details of a seasoned pump operator,with the exception of "talking " with the dispatcher during all these critical moves.I believe a dispatcher should be communicated to during a "neutral" situation where attention to detail will not be infringed upon.

Mike

Sorry to hear about the bad news. I'm glad that nobody was hurt. Hope operators learn from this!

Bisley,

You are correct. But in a perfect world none of the other distractions would be happening either. And this post would have been moot. ;~)

if anybody has any questions about any of the pics please ask.

Is the other operator ok? Has his pulse rate gone back close to normal? If he is a friend of yours... keep in touch with him.

Yeah, he is fine. Feels really bad. You see he used to drive for that ready mix company and is really good friends with the mixer driver he fell on. He couldn't even go and look in the mixer to see if the driver was alright, the contractor did it. He was scheduled to be off for the coming week anyway so it will do him some good. We will know about his job status this week.

I am glad everyone is OK. My question is, what is the INS companies take on the machine? Will it be totaled or will they put a new boom on it? Thanks for posting the pics. A picture never goes away from the pumping mind!

mrmike36z, check your mail, I emailed ya....

ok, modified slide show 1

and the 2nd

Some details on the pump. We had to cut the 3rd and 4th sections off to fold up the boom, they were to badly bent. Not sure if 1 and 2 are tweaked but they look like it. So now we have a twin steer 28m. Gotta laugh :) Stood the truck up and she started right up but chose to have her towed back for obvious reasons. Insurance is coming Tuesday to look at it. I'm sure we will have to get a couple estimates from putz and a local pump repair company to see if she is totaled. Thats about all I know right now.