On December 8th at a Holcim Australia concrete plant in Kalgoorlie Boulder, two workers from Programmed Group were cleaning and painting silos and a conveyor in a boom lift basket. The boom lift broke through a soakwell in a grassed area, causing it to catapult and throw one worker from the basket, killing him at the scene. The other worker was bruised but survived. Cranes were needed to stabilize the boom lift and retrieve the trapped worker.

1. Safety Alert
Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union
82 Royal St East Perth WA 6004 9221 1055 www.cfmeuwa.com
Boom lift fatality
On Wednesday 8th December at the Holcim Australia’s Kalgoorlie Boulder concrete batch plant,
workers from Programmed Group were in the process of cleaning down and painting the batch
plant silos and conveyer. Two men were in the basket of JGL 860SJ Boomlift at the time when it
was travelling along a grassed area near the plant compound (photos) when the right hand front
wheel broke through a soakwell causing a catapult effect to the boom lift resulting one worker to
be thrown out of the basket who died at the scene, the other worker is bruised all over and is
severely traumatised. Cranes had to be called in to stabilise the boomlift and retrieve the man
trapped man from the boomlift basket.
Figure 1 view of work area, workers had completed water blasting conveyer and where moving to silos

2. Figure 2
Figure 3

3. Figure 4
Figure 5

4. Figure 6
Figure 7 View of boom lift wheel being raised out of soak well.

5. Figure 8 View of crane taking weight and removing boomlift from soak well.